Perl speed vs. Python speed

[Fredrik Lundh]

(answering a bunch of questions in one go)

I wrote:
>if everything goes according to plan, 're' (and possibly also
>'regex') will be replaced by a new unicode-aware engine in
>1.6.  I've attached some (somewhat outdated) benchmarks.

Tom Culliton:
> Cool.  How much rewriting is it going to require in existing scripts?

hopefully, the new code will be good enough to fully
replace the existing (pc)re and regex engines.  so as
long as you're not (ab)using some strange feature that
isn't covered by python's test suite, old code should
work just fine.

...

Henry S. Thompson:
> Thanks for the details, I'm moderately desperate to get integrated
> unicode support, when are we hoping to see the first 1.6 beta hit the
> streets?

I'm speculating here, but I wouldn't be surprised if
the unicode support will appear in the CVS version
soon after the conference.

as for the official 1.6 release, only GvR knows...

...

Neil Hodgson:
>    Any hope of a UCS-4 version?
> 
>    Combining Python's preeminence for Mayan calendrical work with support
> for hieroglyphics will allow us to conquer the whole of the ancient world.

python 1.6's unicode support will use 16 bits on
all platforms.

(if it's good enough for Java/Windows, etc...)

extending this for 32-bit characters shouldn't be that
hard, but I guess we have to wait for Python 2.0...

</F>