[Python-Dev] Looking for master thesis ideas involving Python

[Jeremy Fincher]

On Friday 31 October 2003 12:08 pm, Michael Hudson wrote:
> More than that in the good cases.  Something I forgot was that you'd
> probably have to knock variable length types on the head.

That's something I've always wondered about -- what exactly is a "variable 
length type" and why are they special?  From what I gather, they're types 
(long, str, and tuple are the main ones I know of) whose struct is actually 
of variable size -- rather than contain a pointer to a variable-size thing, 
they contain the variable-size thing themselves.

What do we gain from them?

(if there's some documentation I overlooked, feel free to point me to it.)

Thanks,
Jeremy