[Python-Dev] Internal representation of strings and Micropython

[Chris Angelico]

On Thu, Jun 5, 2014 at 10:03 AM, Greg Ewing <greg.ewing at canterbury.ac.nz> wrote:
> StringPositions could support the following operations:
>
>    StringPosition + int --> StringPosition
>    StringPosition - int --> StringPosition
>    StringPosition - StringPosition --> int
>
> These would be computed by counting characters forwards
> or backwards in the string, which would be slower than
> int arithmetic but still faster than counting from the
> beginning of the string every time.

The SP would have to keep track of which string it's associated with,
which might make for some surprising retentions of large strings.
(Imagine returning what you think is an integer, but actually turns
out to be a SP, and you're trying to work out why your program is
eating up so much more memory than it should. This int-like object is
so much more than an int.)

ChrisA