[Python-3000] characters data type

[Michael Chermside]

Guido writes:
> (I had a bad
> experience in my youth with strings implemented as trees, so I'm
> biased against complicated string implementations. This also explains
> why I'm no fan of the oft-proposed idea that slices should avoid
> making physical copies even if they make logical copies -- the
> complexity of that approach horrifies me.)

No argument here with regard to strings implemented as trees, but I
think you may be needlessly worried about physical vs logical copies
for slices. Since strings (and slices of strings) are immutable, the
implementation is quite simple. Read the Java "String" class to see
just how easy. The slice returns a subclass of str that stores a
start and stop position but redirects data access to the buffer used
by the original str. The only tricky part is to manage garbage
collection, solved by having the slice object contain a reference to
the original str. That's it.

Of course, you knew that, but the fact that I can describe it fully
in 2 sentences should help show it's not overly complex.

-- Michael Chermside