[mod_python] Caching issues

Hello all-- I've been experiencing a caching issue from the
very beginning of my use of mod_python...  It's been at least 2 months now,
and I keep running into actual issues that prevent me from coding.
I have a knack for over-explaining, so I'll try to keep this concise yet
descriptive.

I'm developing a site on my local machine, Windows Vista, using Apache 2.2.x
and mod_python 3.3.1 .  I'm a programmer for a living, and I'm not quick to
point the finger at the language, *but* (you knew that was coming, eh?) I
know my code isn't to blame for the issue:

I write some basic code for an 'index.py' file, using the
mod_python.publisher handler.  'index.py' includes other modules which I've
coded from that same location, etc, etc.  Nothing fancy.  Any changes I make
in the 'index.py' file will be reflected immediately on my local web server.
 On the other hand, any changes I make to the modules included via import
from within 'index.py' are completely ignored by the web server.  It took me
a while to realize that my pages didn't reflect my code.  I also discovered
that the .pyc files had nothing to do with it.  I finally just restarted the
apache web service (which in fact runs as a service on my machine), and then
my code finally gets pushed through to the web server.

I've been looking around practically every other day for documentation on
how to make apache/mod_python simply cut it out and stop caching my python
code, but I've found nothing.  You can imagine the annoyance this presents,
since I have to restart my web server every single time I make even the
slightest change to a 'utility.py' file, etc.

I've been coping with the problem for a while now, but then I've found far
more annoying issues recently.  To abbreviate the problem into short terms,
I've got a main module 'MAIN' which imports another module for a class
'CLASS'.  CLASS also has a few imports, such as 'backend' stuff for
interfacing with various databases, etc.  We'll call the 'backend' module
"BACKEND".  Given the setup, any changes I make to CLASS or BACKEND require
an apache restart in order to take effect.

I have a function in CLASS which calls a function from it's imported BACKEND
module.  I tried adding a parameter to the BACKEND function in question, and
properly passed said parameter while in CLASS, yet the mod_python debugger
spits out an error about me having passed 3 arguments, when the BACKEND
function takes exactly 2.  This is outright false, since my function in
BACKEND looks like:

def getUsers(self, req, terms):

and I'm calling it with

self.backend.getUsers(self.req, search)

In reality, my code dictates that I'm passing 3 (including the implicit
'self' argument), and BACKEND's 'getUsers' does in fact take exactly 3
arguments.  Yet, the debugger is telling me that it takes only 2.

I was trying to pass it 'req' because I wanted to investigate a little error
in the code by printing something to the output HTML.  So, my attempt is
foiled, since somewhere something isn't being updated to what my most
current code actually says.

Just to test, I made the 'getUsers' function return immediately with a
string of gibberish, like 'return "adsfasdfadsfa"'.  this should make my
other code spin wildly out of control and encounter errors, yet when I
restart apache and test it... lo and behold, it's completely ignoring my
goofy 'return' statement.  The 'getUsers' function is still somehow
returning valid data, as if the 'return' wasn't there at all!

So then I tried causing actual syntax errors.  The debugger caught this,
much to my inner joy.  So I tried causing a semantic error instead:
referencing a non-existent attribute of a non-existent variable:

madeUpVar.moo = 42

Syntactically, nothing wrong, but at run time it should most definitely
encounter a NameError or something equally as realistic.  But I restart
apache, and... nothing.  The line is completely ignored.

Which leads me to believe that it's not actually being 'ignored' per se, but
rather the code being compiled is not the same as the code in play within
the web server.  When I delete my .pyc files and restart apache and visit
the URL that triggers my python code, my .py files are in fact being
recompiled down to their byte code .pyc files.  And clearly the interpreter
is processing my code, since it flags me on improper syntax.  Yet, no matter
what kind of syntactically-sound nonsense I put into my code, the changes
aren't being reflected in my web server.

These problems come and go, and I've go better explanation than over zealous
caching.  I imagine that by tomorrow sometime when I start my computer up,
the problem will have disappeared for the time being.

I've cursed this computer up and down as I've tried to figure out ANYTHING
that I can do to alleviate the issue, by to no avail.

Anybody with counsel to spare my tired brain is welcome to share...
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