[Python-Dev] Internal representation of strings and Micropython

[Paul Sokolovsky]

Hello,

On Wed, 4 Jun 2014 17:03:22 +1000
Chris Angelico <rosuav at gmail.com> wrote:

[]

> > Why not support variable-width strings like CPython 3.4?
> 
> That was my first recommendation, and in fact I started writing code
> to implement parts of PEP 393, with a view to basically doing it the
> same way in both Pythons. But discussion on the tracker issue showed a
> certain amount of hostility toward the potential expansion of strings,
> particularly in the worst-case example of appending a single SMP
> character onto a long ASCII string.

An alternative view is that the discussion on the tracker showed Python
developers' mind-fixation on implementing something the way CPython does
it. And I didn't yet go to that argument, but in the end, MicroPython
does not try to rewrite CPython or compete with it. So, having few
choices with pros and cons leading approximately to the tie among them,
it's the least productive to make the same choice as CPython did.

Even having "rule of thumb" of choosing not-a-CPython way would be more
productive than having the same rule of thumb for blindly choosing
CPython way. (Of course, actually it should be technical discussion
based on the target requirements, like we hopefully did, with strong
arguments against using something else but the de-facto standard
transfer encoding for Unicode).


> 
> ChrisA

-- 
Best regards,
 Paul                          mailto:pmiscml at gmail.com