Why don't strings share data in Python?

[Mike Coleman]

Erno Kuusela <erno-news at erno.iki.fi> writes:
> reminds me of the buffer object. you can have a buffer object
> representing 'oba' if you do buffer('foobar', 2, 3). i believe this
> does what you awnt memory management wise. the re module can work on
> buffer objects, maybe some other things can too.

Good idea.  They look a bit undocumented, but they do look like a real
possibility for this.  Thanks!