[Python-Dev] Internal representation of strings and Micropython (original) (raw)

Terry Reedy tjreedy at udel.edu
Thu Jun 5 04:25:03 CEST 2014

On 6/4/2014 6:54 PM, Serhiy Storchaka wrote:

05.06.14 00:21, Terry Reedy написав(ла):

On 6/4/2014 3:41 AM, Jeff Allen wrote:

Jython uses UTF-16 internally -- probably the only sensible choice in a Python that can call Java. Indexing is O(N), fundamentally. By "fundamentally", I mean for those strings that have not yet noticed that they contain no supplementary (>0xffff) characters.

Indexing can be made O(log(k)) where k is the number of astral chars, and is usually small. I like your idea and think it would be great if Jython will implement it.

A proof of concept implementation in Python that handles both indexing and slicing is on the tracker. It is simpler than I initially expected.

Unfortunately it is too late to do this in CPython.

I mentioned it as an alternative during the '393 discussion. I more than half agree that the FSR is the better choice for CPython, which had no particular attachment to UTF-16 in the way that I think Jython, for instance, does.

-- Terry Jan Reedy

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