[Python-Dev] Internal representation of strings and Micropython

[Paul Sokolovsky]

Hello,

On Wed, 04 Jun 2014 20:52:14 +0300
Serhiy Storchaka <storchaka at gmail.com> wrote:

[]
> > That's sad, I agree.
> 
> Other languages (Go, Rust) can be happy without O(1) indexing of 
> strings. All string and regex operations work with iterators or
> cursors, and I believe this approach is not significant worse than
> implementing strings as O(1)-indexable arrays of characters (for some
> applications it can be worse, for other it can be better). But Python
> is different language, it has different operations for strings and
> different idioms. A language which doesn't support O(1) indexing is
> not Python, it is only Python-like language.

Sorry, but that's just your personal opinion, not shared by other
developers, as this thread showed. And let's not pretend we live in
happy-ever world of Python 1.5.2 which doesn't need anything more
because it's perfect as it is. Somebody added all those iterators and
iterator-returning functions to Pythons. And then the problem Python
has is a typical "last mile" problem, that iterators were not applied
completely everywhere. There's little choice but to move in that
direction, though.

What you call "idioms", other people call "sloppy programming
practices". There's common suggestion how to be at peace with Python's
indentation for those who find it a problem - "get over it". Well,
somehow it itches to say same for people who think that Python3 should
be used the same way as Python1: Get over the fact that Python is no
longer little funny language being laughed at by Perl crowd for being
order of magnitude slower at processing text files. While you still can
do little funny tricks we all love Python for, it now also offers
framework to do it right, and it makes little sense saying that doing it
little funny way is the definitive trait of Python.

(And for me it's easy to be such categorical - the only way I could
subscribe to idea of running Python on an MCU and not be laughable is by
trusting Python to provide framework for being efficient. I quit
working on another language because I have trusted that iterator,
generator, buffer protocols are not little funny things but thoroughly
engineered efficient concepts, and I don't feel betrayed.)


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