[Python-Dev] range() as iterator (Re: More int/long integration issues) (original) (raw)

M.-A. Lemburg mal@lemburg.com
Sat, 12 Apr 2003 13:23:47 +0200

Guido van Rossum wrote:

I'd like to work on this. I've already written a C range() iterator (incorporating PyLongs), and it would be very nice to have it automatically be a lazy range() when used in a loop.

In any case, assuming you are quite busy, but would consider this for the 2.4 timeframe, I will do some work on it. If it is already being covered, I'll gladly stay away from it. :) range() can't be changed from returning a list until at least Python 3.0.

Is this change really necessary ? Instead of changing the semantics of range() why not have the byte code compiler optimize it's typical usage:

for i in range(10): pass

In the above case, changing the byte code compiler output would not introduce any change in semantics. Even better, the compiler could get rid off the function call altogether.

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