Python speed and `pcre'

[François Pinard]

"M.-A. Lemburg" <mal at lemburg.com> writes:

> [substrings]

> Note that Python 1.5.2 already support such beasts... albeit rather well
> hidden (for obvious reasons ;-) and not fully interoperatable yet:

> >>> s = '12345678901234567890'
> >>> snippet1 = buffer(s,8,3)
[...]
> You can always turn a buffer back into a string using the str()
> function.

> Perhaps the string module should be extended to use "s#"
> more often...

Hello.  Thanks for the pointer, yet I'm just starting to understand your
reply, and it may take some while, still.  The manual is very terse about
the `buffer' function, relating it to `buffer' methods, without explaining
any further what these are...  Also, I do not understand the "s#" quote.
Sorry for being a bit opaque, here.  Would someone suggest some magnetic
reference to me about these, which a beginner could afford to read and
understand?  I'm not ready yet to dive into the interpreter sources :-).

-- 
François Pinard   http://www.iro.umontreal.ca/~pinard