[Python-Dev] Accessing globals without dict lookup
Tim Peters
tim.one@comcast.net
Mon, 11 Feb 2002 23:45:06 -0500
[Ping]
>> 1. There are going to be lots of global-cell objects.
>> Perhaps they should get their own allocator and free list.
[Guido]
> Yes.
No no no no no, and 5*-1 beats a +1 even from the BDFL <wink>.
Vanilla pymalloc is perfect for this: many small objects. A custom free
list for cells is a waste of code, because a cell never goes away until the
module does: cells will not "churn". We'll get a lot of them, but most of
them will stay alive until the program ends, so the tiny performance gain
you may be able to get from a thoroughly specialized free list "in theory"
will never be realized in practice.