Message 119030 - Python tracker (original) (raw)

AFAICT, a change from (Py_ssize_t)-1 to (size_t)-1 is less likely to break code than a change from -1L to (Py_ssize_t)-1. (Assuming a sizeof(long) != sizeof(void*) platform.)

That's true.

The benefit, though is that hash computations can be performed natively on the hash values without casting to an unrelated type.

I don't understand what you mean by "native" and "unrelated". Signed integers are not less native than unsigned ones.