[Python-Dev] Int FutureWarnings and other 2.4 TODOs (original) (raw)

Guido van Rossum guido at python.org
Fri Dec 5 10:09:21 EST 2003

> To my mind, the ideal is that there's a single type, probably > called "int" or "integer" which can take on an arbitrary size and > precision BUT which, if it happens to be small enough to fit in > a C int will take up less memory and run faster. The fact that > it's stored differently should be an implementation detail not > visible to the user.

Hmmmm... How important is the "less memory" angle versus the "faster" angle? Why not just add a few bytes to the long type to store an int? If you're using the int, the pointer is NULL, and you're saving that memory, at least. The only harm is some extra memory in the type object.

I'd say that the "less memory" angle is pretty important. The int implementation has been using every trick in the book to save memory from very early days on: it has the most sophisticated special-purpose allocator, and it uses a cache for popular values, and you really can't squeeze any more bits out of the structure.

--Guido van Rossum (home page: http://www.python.org/~guido/)

More information about the Python-Dev mailing list