# HG changeset patch
# User Paul Boddie <paul@boddie.org.uk>
# Date 1192394770 -7200
# Node ID dff259dd9f5e0f6f2ab65449c73163ec5fbf3e85
# Parent  7072be5017678f2b34c4e8c39a9014359a90c737
Added an issues document which discusses the obstacles in processing Python
source code and generating executable program code.

diff -r 7072be501767 -r dff259dd9f5e docs/issues.txt
--- /dev/null	Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 1970 +0000
+++ b/docs/issues.txt	Sun Oct 14 22:46:10 2007 +0200
@@ -0,0 +1,36 @@
+Code Generation and Optimisation Issues
+=======================================
+
+Python's dynamic nature provides a few issues which obstruct the generation of
+optimised code.
+
+Attribute and Method Selection
+------------------------------
+
+Python provides a kind of shadowing of attributes so that objects which do not
+provide a particular attribute can still appear to provide such an attribute
+via the object's class or base classes. If access via the object or the class
+are both possible for a particular case, two different kinds of access would
+need to be provided at that location in the program.
+
+Unlike other languages, methods and non-method attributes are interchangeable
+and are provided by objects or classes. Consequently, distinctions between
+attributes and methods, with special rules for method selection (virtual vs.
+non-virtual) do not exist. Moreover, unlike some languages such as C++ where
+explicit qualification of an object's type can be used to reference an
+attribute - for example, by saying that an object is of type X, an attribute
+can be located using knowledge of the structure of instances of X - such
+qualification does not take place in Python programs, and such knowledge must
+be provided by other means.
+
+Parameter Structures
+--------------------
+
+Python provides some complicated ways of passing parameters to functions and
+methods, such as keyword arguments and "overflow" parameters (star and dstar
+parameters). Consequently, if parameter values are to be put on a stack and
+given to a function, resolution of keyword arguments and "excess" arguments
+(of both positional and keyword varieties) must take place. This is made even
+more complicated by the possibility that at a given invocation site, many
+potentially incompatible functions may be called, each with their own optimal
+parameter ordering.