On 1/25/2010 9:32 PM, Nick Coghlan wrote:
However, as Cameron pointed out, the O() value for an operation is an important characteristic of containers, and having people get used to an O(1) list.pop(0) in CPython could create problems not only for other current Python implementations but also for future versions of CPython itself.
The idea that CPython should not be improved because it would spoil programmers strikes me as a thin, even desparate objection. One could say that same thing about the recent optimization of string += string so that repeated concats are O(n) instead of O(n*n). What a trap if people move code to other implementations (or older Python) without that new feature.
Of course, the whole purpose of adding a jit to CPython would be to spoil us.
It is a fact already that optimizing CPython code is specific to a particular interpreter, system, and workload.
Terry Jan Reedy _______________________________________________ Python-Dev mailing list Python-Dev@python.org http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-dev Unsubscribe: http://mail.python.org/mailman/options/python-dev/archive%40mail-archive.com
