To be able to do that in Python, you have to give up source filters and prototypes in Perl. If you want no source filter or no prototypes, you know where to find Python, but I prefer that they stay in Perl.

If you want to promise never to use prototypes or source filters (or any module that might use those), you can certainly use B::Bytecode to create compiled ".pmc" files. In fact, I think the current "use" operator already probes for .pmc as well as .pm files.

---

Update: regarding .pmc files: seen in perldoc -tf require:

            Now that you understand how "require" looks for files in t
+he
            case of a bareword argument, there is a little extra
            functionality going on behind the scenes. Before "require"
+ looks
            for a ".pm" extension, it will first look for a filename w
+ith a
            ".pmc" extension. A file with this extension is assumed to
+ be
            Perl bytecode generated by B::Bytecode. If this file is fo
+und,
            and it's modification time is newer than a coinciding ".pm
+"
            non-compiled file, it will be loaded in place of that
            non-compiled file ending in a ".pm" extension.
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