[Python-Dev] More compact dictionaries with faster iteration (original) (raw)

Dino Viehland dinov at microsoft.com
Tue Dec 11 20:37:13 CET 2012

PJ wrote:

Actually, IronPython may already have ordered dictionaries by default; see:

http://mail.python.org/pipermail/ironpython-users/2006- May/002319.html It's described as an implementation detail that may change, perhaps that could be changed to being unchanging. ;-)

I think this has changed since 2006. IronPython was originally using the .NET dictionary class and just locking while using it, but it now has a custom dictionary which is thread safe for multiple readers and allows 1 writer. But it doesn't do anything to preserve order of insertions.

OTOH changing certain dictionaries in IronPython (such as keyword args) to be ordered would certainly be possible. Personally I just wouldn't want to see it be the default as that seems like unnecessary overhead when the specialized class exists.

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