"MonkeeSage" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message news:[EMAIL PROTECTED] |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?)
The direct answer is that names cannot be entered into namespaces and bound to objects to be looked up until the corresponding object is created by executing the corresponding code. Compiling Python code creates the internal code needed to create Python objects, but only exceptionally creates Python objects in the process. In particular, compiling a function may create code objects (since the code is a constant) referenced by the function creation code, but not function objects themselves. A less direct answer is the Python is designed to by usable interactively. In CPython interactive mode, you enter and the interpreter compiles and executes one top(module)-level statement at a time. Calling a function you have not yet entered would be magical. Terry Jan Reedy -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
