[Python-Dev] String views (original) (raw)

Josiah Carlson jcarlson at uci.edu
Fri Sep 2 05:55:05 CEST 2005

skip at pobox.com wrote:

>> I'm skeptical about performance as well, but not for that reason. A >> string object can have a referent field. If not NULL, it refers to >> another string object which is INCREFed in the usual way. At string >> deallocation, if the referent is not NULL, the referent is DECREFed. >> If the referent is NULL, obsval is freed.

Michael> Won't work. A string may have multiple referrents, so a single Michael> referent field isn't sufficient. Hmmm... I implemented it last night (though it has yet to be tested). I suspect it will work. Here's my PyStringObject struct:

cough buffers with string methods cough Seriously. I know people don't seem to like them much, but a buffer is a string view, an array view, an mmap view, ... It does /exactly/ what you suggest string views should do, and it's already in Python. With minor wrappers, one could use string methods almost directly, or with modification of string methods, buffers and strings could share methods.

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