[Python-3000] Lazy strings (was Re: Py3k release schedule worries) (original) (raw)

Josiah Carlson jcarlson at uci.edu
Sat Jan 13 07:27:08 CET 2007

Larry Hastings <larry at hastings.org> wrote:

Of the five I've proposed so far, Guido's right, only changing the API will preserve the speedup and result in correct behavior. But I maintain some dim hope that a sixth exists, waiting only to be suggested by some shining intellect.

There is a 6th option, which I offered before you wrote your patch, which I offered again in the last day or so, but which you have refused because you believe there should be one obvious way to do it. A wraper type.

I agree that there should be only one way, however, your proposed change isn't just about improving speed, it's about changing the semantics of the underlying type in a way that makes the underlying type difficult to understand and maintain. Nevermind the 400+ other changes necessary.

Even better, a wrapper type for unicode makes it simple to have a wrapper type for bytes, buffers, arrays, etc., which offer the same methods as unicode (which are quite useful for certain file format and socket protocol parsing operations), which could be used to improve many types, not just unicode.

But hey, don't listen to me, I'm just the crazy guy who has been advocating the simplification of the implementation of str, unicode, bytes, array, and mmaps through the use of a wrapper type for 4 and 1/2 months.

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