[Python-Dev] PEP 393 Summer of Code Project

[Torsten Becker]

Hello all,

I have implemented an initial version of PEP 393 -- "Flexible String
Representation" as part of my Google Summer of Code project.  My patch
is hosted as a repository on bitbucket [1] and I created a related
issue on the bug tracker [2].  I posted documentation for the current
state of the development in the wiki [3].

Current tests show a potential reduction of memory by about 20% and
CPU by 50% for a join micro benchmark.  Starting a new interpreter
still causes 3244 calls to create compatibility Py_UNICODE
representations, 263 strings are created using the old API while 62719
are created using the new API.  More measurements are on the wiki page
[3].

If there is interest, I would like to continue working on the patch
with the goal of getting it into Python 3.3.  Any and all feedback is
welcome.


Regards,
Torsten

[1]: http://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0393
[2]: http://bugs.python.org/issue12819
[3]: http://wiki.python.org/moin/SummerOfCode/2011/PEP393