[Python-Dev] Fast access to builtins (original) (raw)

Guido van Rossum guido@python.org
Fri, 28 Mar 2003 07:33:19 -0500

Does it check if it's one of the standard builtin module or whether it is an attribute of whatever object is currently set as the module's builtins attribute?

Only standard builtins need to be exempt, because the compiler isn't going to optimize non-standard builtins. That's because (a) there won't be special opcodes that implement those builtins directly, and (b) the bytecode compiler doesn't know the contents of builtins so it can't possibly know about nonstandard builtins anyway to generate a LOAD_BUILTIN opcode.

BTW, I expect that nonstandard builtins will be ruled out in some future version of the language, or will have to be declared differently. They are too confusing for the human reader of the code.

--Guido van Rossum (home page: http://www.python.org/~guido/)