Larry Hastings added the comment:

>
> Are the generated files *byte for byte* the same as produced by the
> existing parser generation process?
>

Correct. The generator runs during the build (in the Makefile), but only if
the files were out-of-date. It takes Python.asdl and produces Python-ast.h
and Python-ast.c; the latter two are compiled into the CPython executable.
The .h/.c files produced by my alternative generator are exactly identical
to the ones in there now.

I don't feel strongly about this, but I may need a refresher in the release
process rules. From today and until Feb 23rd, 2014 - are we not supposed to
be adding new features/PEPs or are we also not supposed to do any code
refactorings and/or any changes at all unless those are directly related to
fixing a specific bug/issue?