[Python-Dev] The Dictionary Gem is polished!

[M.-A. Lemburg]

> Here some results, dictionaries have 1000 entries:
> 
> timing for strings              old=  5.097 new= 5.088
> timing for bad integers (<<10)  old=101.540 new=12.610
> timing for bad integers (<<16)  old=571.210 new=19.220

Even though I think concentrating on string keys would provide more
performance boost for Python in general, I think you have a point
there. +1 from here.

BTW, would changing the hash function on strings from the simple
XOR scheme to something a little smarter help improve the performance
too (e.g. most strings used in programming never use the 8-th
bit) ?

I also think that we could inline the string compare function
in dictobject:lookdict_string to achieve even better performance.
Currently it uses a function which doesn't trigger compiler
inlining.

And finally: I think a generic PyString_Compare() API would
be useful in a lot of places where strings are being compared
(e.g. dictionaries and keyword parameters). Unicode already
has such an API (along with dozens of other useful APIs which
are not available for strings).

-- 
Marc-Andre Lemburg
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