Brett Cannon wrote:
> 
> Brett Cannon <brett@python.org> added the comment:
> 
> I don't quite follow what you are suggesting, MAL. Are you saying to freeze importlib.__init__ and importlib._bootstrap and somehow have improtlib.__init__ choose what to load, frozen or source?

No, it always loads and runs the frozen code, but at the start of
the module code it branches between the frozen bytecode and the code
read from an external file.

Pseudo-code in every module you wish to be able to host externally:

#
# MyModule
#
if operating_in_dev_mode and '<frozen>' in __file__:
    exec(open('dev-area/MyModule.py', 'r).read(), globals(), globals())
else:
    # Normal module code
    class MyClass: ...
    # hundreds of lines of code...

Aside: With a module scope "break", the code would look more elegant:

#
# MyModule
#
if operating_in_dev_mode and '<frozen>' in __file__:
    exec(open('dev-area/MyModule.py', 'r).read(), globals(), globals())
    break

# Normal module code
class MyClass: ...
# hundreds of lines of code...