I've been programming for over 9 years, and according to the advice of my first programming teacher, I always keep my main() function extremely short.

At first I had no idea why. I just obeyed without understanding, much to the delight of my professors.

After gaining experience, I realized that if I designed my code correctly, having a short main() function just sortof happened. Writing modularized code and following the single responsibility principle allowed my code to be designed in "bunches", and main() served as nothing more than a catalyst to get the program running.

Fast forward to a few weeks ago, I was looking at Python's souce code, and I found the main() function:

/* Minimal main program -- everything is loaded from the library */

...

int
main(int argc, char **argv)
{
    ...
    return Py_Main(argc, argv);
}


Yay python. Short main() function == Good code. 

Programming teachers were right.

Wanting to look deeper, I took a look at Py_Main. In its entirety, it is defined as follows:

/* Main program */

int
Py_Main(int argc, char **argv)
{
    int c;
    int sts;
    char *command = NULL;
    char *filename = NULL;
    char *module = NULL;
    FILE *fp = stdin;
    char *p;
    int unbuffered = 0;
    int skipfirstline = 0;
    int stdin_is_interactive = 0;
    int help = 0;
    int version = 0;
    int saw_unbuffered_flag = 0;
    PyCompilerFlags cf;

    cf.cf_flags = 0;

    orig_argc = argc;           /* For Py_GetArgcArgv() */
    orig_argv = argv;

#ifdef RISCOS
    Py_RISCOSWimpFlag = 0;
#endif

    PySys_ResetWarnOptions();

    while ((c = _PyOS_GetOpt(argc, argv, PROGRAM_OPTS)) != EOF) {
        if (c == 'c') {
            /* -c is the last option; following arguments
               that look like options are left for the
               command to interpret. */
            command = (char *)malloc(strlen(_PyOS_optarg) + 2);
            if (command == NULL)
                Py_FatalError(
                   "not enough memory to copy -c argument");
            strcpy(command, _PyOS_optarg);
            strcat(command, "\n");
            break;
        }

        if (c == 'm') {
            /* -m is the last option; following arguments
               that look like options are left for the
               module to interpret. */
            module = (char *)malloc(strlen(_PyOS_optarg) + 2);
            if (module == NULL)
                Py_FatalError(
                   "not enough memory to copy -m argument");
            strcpy(module, _PyOS_optarg);
            break;
        }

        switch (c) {
        case 'b':
            Py_BytesWarningFlag++;
            break;

        case 'd':
            Py_DebugFlag++;
            break;

        case '3':
            Py_Py3kWarningFlag++;
            if (!Py_DivisionWarningFlag)
                Py_DivisionWarningFlag = 1;
            break;

        case 'Q':
            if (strcmp(_PyOS_optarg, "old") == 0) {
                Py_DivisionWarningFlag = 0;
                break;
            }
            if (strcmp(_PyOS_optarg, "warn") == 0) {
                Py_DivisionWarningFlag = 1;
                break;
            }
            if (strcmp(_PyOS_optarg, "warnall") == 0) {
                Py_DivisionWarningFlag = 2;
                break;
            }
            if (strcmp(_PyOS_optarg, "new") == 0) {
                /* This only affects __main__ */
                cf.cf_flags |= CO_FUTURE_DIVISION;
                /* And this tells the eval loop to treat
                   BINARY_DIVIDE as BINARY_TRUE_DIVIDE */
                _Py_QnewFlag = 1;
                break;
            }
            fprintf(stderr,
                "-Q option should be `-Qold', "
                "`-Qwarn', `-Qwarnall', or `-Qnew' only\n");
            return usage(2, argv[0]);
            /* NOTREACHED */

        case 'i':
            Py_InspectFlag++;
            Py_InteractiveFlag++;
            break;

        /* case 'J': reserved for Jython */

        case 'O':
            Py_OptimizeFlag++;
            break;

        case 'B':
            Py_DontWriteBytecodeFlag++;
            break;

        case 's':
            Py_NoUserSiteDirectory++;
            break;

        case 'S':
            Py_NoSiteFlag++;
            break;

        case 'E':
            Py_IgnoreEnvironmentFlag++;
            break;

        case 't':
            Py_TabcheckFlag++;
            break;

        case 'u':
            unbuffered++;
            saw_unbuffered_flag = 1;
            break;

        case 'v':
            Py_VerboseFlag++;
            break;

#ifdef RISCOS
        case 'w':
            Py_RISCOSWimpFlag = 1;
            break;
#endif

        case 'x':
            skipfirstline = 1;
            break;

        /* case 'X': reserved for implementation-specific arguments */

        case 'U':
            Py_UnicodeFlag++;
            break;
        case 'h':
        case '?':
            help++;
            break;
        case 'V':
            version++;
            break;

        case 'W':
            PySys_AddWarnOption(_PyOS_optarg);
            break;

        /* This space reserved for other options */

        default:
            return usage(2, argv[0]);
            /*NOTREACHED*/

        }
    }

    if (help)
        return usage(0, argv[0]);

    if (version) {
        fprintf(stderr, "Python %s\n", PY_VERSION);
        return 0;
    }

    if (Py_Py3kWarningFlag && !Py_TabcheckFlag)
        /* -3 implies -t (but not -tt) */
        Py_TabcheckFlag = 1;

    if (!Py_InspectFlag &&
        (p = Py_GETENV("PYTHONINSPECT")) && *p != '\0')
        Py_InspectFlag = 1;
    if (!saw_unbuffered_flag &&
        (p = Py_GETENV("PYTHONUNBUFFERED")) && *p != '\0')
        unbuffered = 1;

    if (!Py_NoUserSiteDirectory &&
        (p = Py_GETENV("PYTHONNOUSERSITE")) && *p != '\0')
        Py_NoUserSiteDirectory = 1;

    if ((p = Py_GETENV("PYTHONWARNINGS")) && *p != '\0') {
        char *buf, *warning;

        buf = (char *)malloc(strlen(p) + 1);
        if (buf == NULL)
            Py_FatalError(
               "not enough memory to copy PYTHONWARNINGS");
        strcpy(buf, p);
        for (warning = strtok(buf, ",");
             warning != NULL;
             warning = strtok(NULL, ","))
            PySys_AddWarnOption(warning);
        free(buf);
    }

    if (command == NULL && module == NULL && _PyOS_optind < argc &&
        strcmp(argv[_PyOS_optind], "-") != 0)
    {
#ifdef __VMS
        filename = decc$translate_vms(argv[_PyOS_optind]);
        if (filename == (char *)0 || filename == (char *)-1)
            filename = argv[_PyOS_optind];

#else
        filename = argv[_PyOS_optind];
#endif
    }

    stdin_is_interactive = Py_FdIsInteractive(stdin, (char *)0);

    if (unbuffered) {
#if defined(MS_WINDOWS) || defined(__CYGWIN__)
        _setmode(fileno(stdin), O_BINARY);
        _setmode(fileno(stdout), O_BINARY);
#endif
#ifdef HAVE_SETVBUF
        setvbuf(stdin,  (char *)NULL, _IONBF, BUFSIZ);
        setvbuf(stdout, (char *)NULL, _IONBF, BUFSIZ);
        setvbuf(stderr, (char *)NULL, _IONBF, BUFSIZ);
#else /* !HAVE_SETVBUF */
        setbuf(stdin,  (char *)NULL);
        setbuf(stdout, (char *)NULL);
        setbuf(stderr, (char *)NULL);
#endif /* !HAVE_SETVBUF */
    }
    else if (Py_InteractiveFlag) {
#ifdef MS_WINDOWS
        /* Doesn't have to have line-buffered -- use unbuffered */
        /* Any set[v]buf(stdin, ...) screws up Tkinter :-( */
        setvbuf(stdout, (char *)NULL, _IONBF, BUFSIZ);
#else /* !MS_WINDOWS */
#ifdef HAVE_SETVBUF
        setvbuf(stdin,  (char *)NULL, _IOLBF, BUFSIZ);
        setvbuf(stdout, (char *)NULL, _IOLBF, BUFSIZ);
#endif /* HAVE_SETVBUF */
#endif /* !MS_WINDOWS */
        /* Leave stderr alone - it should be unbuffered anyway. */
    }
#ifdef __VMS
    else {
        setvbuf (stdout, (char *)NULL, _IOLBF, BUFSIZ);
    }
#endif /* __VMS */

#ifdef __APPLE__
    /* On MacOS X, when the Python interpreter is embedded in an
       application bundle, it gets executed by a bootstrapping script
       that does os.execve() with an argv[0] that's different from the
       actual Python executable. This is needed to keep the Finder happy,
       or rather, to work around Apple's overly strict requirements of
       the process name. However, we still need a usable sys.executable,
       so the actual executable path is passed in an environment variable.
       See Lib/plat-mac/bundlebuiler.py for details about the bootstrap
       script. */
    if ((p = Py_GETENV("PYTHONEXECUTABLE")) && *p != '\0')
        Py_SetProgramName(p);
    else
        Py_SetProgramName(argv[0]);
#else
    Py_SetProgramName(argv[0]);
#endif
    Py_Initialize();

    if (Py_VerboseFlag ||
        (command == NULL && filename == NULL && module == NULL && stdin_is_interactive)) {
        fprintf(stderr, "Python %s on %s\n",
            Py_GetVersion(), Py_GetPlatform());
        if (!Py_NoSiteFlag)
            fprintf(stderr, "%s\n", COPYRIGHT);
    }

    if (command != NULL) {
        /* Backup _PyOS_optind and force sys.argv[0] = '-c' */
        _PyOS_optind--;
        argv[_PyOS_optind] = "-c";
    }

    if (module != NULL) {
        /* Backup _PyOS_optind and force sys.argv[0] = '-c'
           so that PySys_SetArgv correctly sets sys.path[0] to ''
           rather than looking for a file called "-m". See
           tracker issue #8202 for details. */
        _PyOS_optind--;
        argv[_PyOS_optind] = "-c";
    }

    PySys_SetArgv(argc-_PyOS_optind, argv+_PyOS_optind);

    if ((Py_InspectFlag || (command == NULL && filename == NULL && module == NULL)) &&
        isatty(fileno(stdin))) {
        PyObject *v;
        v = PyImport_ImportModule("readline");
        if (v == NULL)
            PyErr_Clear();
        else
            Py_DECREF(v);
    }

    if (command) {
        sts = PyRun_SimpleStringFlags(command, &cf) != 0;
        free(command);
    } else if (module) {
        sts = RunModule(module, 1);
        free(module);
    }
    else {

        if (filename == NULL && stdin_is_interactive) {
            Py_InspectFlag = 0; /* do exit on SystemExit */
            RunStartupFile(&cf);
        }
        /* XXX */

        sts = -1;               /* keep track of whether we've already run __main__ */

        if (filename != NULL) {
            sts = RunMainFromImporter(filename);
        }

        if (sts==-1 && filename!=NULL) {
            if ((fp = fopen(filename, "r")) == NULL) {
                fprintf(stderr, "%s: can't open file '%s': [Errno %d] %s\n",
                    argv[0], filename, errno, strerror(errno));

                return 2;
            }
            else if (skipfirstline) {
                int ch;
                /* Push back first newline so line numbers
                   remain the same */
                while ((ch = getc(fp)) != EOF) {
                    if (ch == '\n') {
                        (void)ungetc(ch, fp);
                        break;
                    }
                }
            }
            {
                /* XXX: does this work on Win/Win64? (see posix_fstat) */
                struct stat sb;
                if (fstat(fileno(fp), &sb) == 0 &&
                    S_ISDIR(sb.st_mode)) {
                    fprintf(stderr, "%s: '%s' is a directory, cannot continue\n", argv[0], filename);
                    fclose(fp);
                    return 1;
                }
            }
        }

        if (sts==-1) {
            /* call pending calls like signal handlers (SIGINT) */
            if (Py_MakePendingCalls() == -1) {
                PyErr_Print();
                sts = 1;
            } else {
                sts = PyRun_AnyFileExFlags(
                    fp,
                    filename == NULL ? "<stdin>" : filename,
                    filename != NULL, &cf) != 0;
            }
        }

    }

    /* Check this environment variable at the end, to give programs the
     * opportunity to set it from Python.
     */
    if (!Py_InspectFlag &&
        (p = Py_GETENV("PYTHONINSPECT")) && *p != '\0')
    {
        Py_InspectFlag = 1;
    }

    if (Py_InspectFlag && stdin_is_interactive &&
        (filename != NULL || command != NULL || module != NULL)) {
        Py_InspectFlag = 0;
        /* XXX */
        sts = PyRun_AnyFileFlags(stdin, "<stdin>", &cf) != 0;
    }

    Py_Finalize();
#ifdef RISCOS
    if (Py_RISCOSWimpFlag)
        fprintf(stderr, "\x0cq\x0c"); /* make frontend quit */
#endif

#ifdef __INSURE__
    /* Insure++ is a memory analysis tool that aids in discovering
     * memory leaks and other memory problems.  On Python exit, the
     * interned string dictionary is flagged as being in use at exit
     * (which it is).  Under normal circumstances, this is fine because
     * the memory will be automatically reclaimed by the system.  Under
     * memory debugging, it's a huge source of useless noise, so we
     * trade off slower shutdown for less distraction in the memory
     * reports.  -baw
     */
    _Py_ReleaseInternedStrings();
#endif /* __INSURE__ */

    return sts;
}


Good God Almighty...it is big enough to sink the Titanic.

It seems as though Python did the "Intro to Programming 101" trick and just moved all of main()'s code to a different function called it something very similar to "main".

Here's my question: Is this code terribly written, or are there other reasons to have a short main function?

As it stands right now, I see absolutely no difference between doing this and just moving the code in Py_Main() back into main(). Am I wrong in thinking this?

You cannot export main from a library, but you can export Py_Main, and then anyone using that library can "call" Python many times with different arguments in the same program. At that point, python becomes just another consumer of the library, little more than a wrapper for the library function; it calls Py_Main just like everyone else.