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

[Michael Hudson]

"Phillip J. Eby" <pje at telecommunity.com> writes:

> At 06:33 PM 10/29/03 +0000, Michael Hudson wrote:
>>"Phillip J. Eby" <pje at telecommunity.com> writes:
>>
>> > * Direct use of positional arguments on the stack as the "locals" of
>> >   the next function called, without creating (and then unpacking) an
>> >   argument tuple, in the case where there are no */** arguments
>> >   provided by the caller.
>>
>>Already done, unless I misunderstand your idea.  Well, the arguments
>>might still get copied into the new frame's locals area but I'm pretty
>>sure no tuple is involved.
>
> Hm.  I thought that particular optimization only could take place when
> the function lacks default arguments.  But maybe I've misread that
> part.  If it's true in all cases, then argument tuple creation isn't
> where the overhead is coming from.

I hadn't realized/had forgotten that this optimization depended on the
lack of default arguments.  Instinct would say that it shouldn't be
*too* hard to extend to that case (hardly a thesis topic, at any rate
:-).

Cheers,
mwh

-- 
  The only problem with Microsoft is they just have no taste.
              -- Steve Jobs, (From _Triumph of the Nerds_ PBS special)
                         and quoted by Aahz Maruch on comp.lang.python