[Python-Dev] Python 2.3b1 has 20% slower networking? (original) (raw)

Skip Montanaro skip@pobox.com
Mon, 28 Apr 2003 09:32:23 -0500 

Itamar> If this slowdown is confirmed, it is really not acceptable,
Itamar> since the change seems to have been made only to support making
Itamar> timeout sockets slightly easier to use.

It was done to support making timeout sockets work properly. As they existed previously, timeout sockets wouldn't work with protocols which would most likely use them: higher level modules such as httplib, which call sock.makefile(), then call readlines?() on the resulting file object.

Itamar> Why should everyone have to pay a speed penalty just so a
Itamar> minority of people can skip calling a
Itamar> "socket.installtimeoutsupport()" at the beginning of their
Itamar> program? it's just one line of code they'd need to add.

I think it would be easier for the minority of programs that care about the 20% performance loss to simply set

import socket, _socket
socket.socket = socket.SocketType = _socket.socket

I don't know about you, but fast and incorrect don't help me much.

Feel free to submit a patch which improves performance but maintains proper behavior in the face of timeouts (that is, allows test_urllibnet to still work correctly).

Skip