On Dec 7, 9:23 am, MonkeeSage <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> A quick question about how python parses a file into compiled
> bytecode. Does it parse the whole file into AST first and then compile
> the AST, or does it build and compile the AST on the fly as it reads
> expressions? (If the former case, why can't functions be called before
> their definitions?)
Python creates certain objects at compile time but doesn't bind them
to names in the modulespace until run time.
Python could--and many other languages do--automatically bind these
objects to names upon import. Python doesn't do it because it sees a
module as "code to be executed" rather than a "list of global object
definitions".
Something like this would be awkward if Python bound the names at
import time:
if X:
def a(): do_this()
else:
def a(): do_that()
Which one gets bound to a?
To do something similar in C would require preprocessor macros (ick).
Carl Banks
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