[Python-Dev] adding Construct to the standard library?

[Gustavo Carneiro]

>
> why include Construct?
> * the struct module is very nice, but very limited and non-pythonic as
> well
> * pure python (no platform/security issues)
>

  IMHO this is a drawback.  More on this below.

* lots of people need to parse and build binary data structures, it's not an
> esoteric library
> * license: public domain
> * quite a large user base for such a short time (proves the need of the
> community)
>

  Indeed, I wish I had known about this a year ago; it would have saved me a
lot of work.  Of course it probably didn't exist a year ago...  :(


> * easy to use and extend (follows the componentization pattern)
> * declarative: you don't need to write executable code for most cases
>

  Well, declarative is less flexible.  OTOH declarative is nice in the way
it is more readable and allows more optimisations.

why not:
> * the code is (very) young. stable and all, but less than a month on the
> loose.
> * new features may still be added / existing ones may be changed in a
> non-backwards-compatible manner
>
> so why am i saying this now, instead of waiting a few months for it to
> maturet?
> well, i wanted to get feedback. those of you who have seen/used the
> library, please tell me what you think:
> * is it suitable for a standard library?
>
* what more features would you want?
> * any changes you think are necessary?
>

  This is a very nice library indeed.  But the number one feature that I
need in something like this would be to use C.  That's because of my
application specific requirements, where i have observed that reapeatedly
using struct.pack/unpack and reading bytes from a stream represents a
considerable CPU overhead, whereas the same thing in C would be ultra fast.

  IMHO, at least in theory Construct could have small but fast C extension
to take care of the encoding and decoding, which is the critical path.
Everything else, like the declaration part, can be python, as it is usually
done once on application startup.

  If you agree to go down this path I might even be able to volunteer some
of my time to help, but it's not my decision.

  Best regards.
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