struct.Struct random access

[Tim Roberts]

castironpi <castironpi at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>I'd like to seriously nominate this idea and get a considered opinion
>on it.
>
>struct.Struct lets you encode Python objects into structured memory.
>It accepts a format string, and optionally a buffer and offset to/from
>which to read/write the structure.  What do you think of random access
>to the results?  To avoid Marc's concern about meaningless anonymous
>record entries, model the constructor after 'namedtuple' type.
>
>(unproduced)
>>>> packer= struct.Struct( 'IIIf255p', 'i1 i2 i3 afloat name' )
>>>> packer.pack_into( buf, off, 10, 20, 30, 0.5, 'abc' )
>>>> packer.unpack_from( buf, off, 'i3' )
>30
>>>> packer.unpack_from( buf, off )
>( 10, 20, 30, 0.5, 'abc' )
>>>> packer.pack_into( buf, off, 'i1', 12 )

What data type would you expect "buf" to be?  Your design requires it to be
both an input and an output parameter.  Today's "struct" converts into and
out of a string, and strings are immutable.  So, to continue with that
standard, you would have to pass a string into "pack_into" and have the
modified result returned as an output:

    buf = packer.pack_into( None, 0, 10, 20, 30, 0.5, 'abc' )
    buf = packer.pack_into( buf, 0, 'i1', 12 )

In the end, I'm not sure you are really saving anything.

>Even in sequential access speed benefits, by avoiding the construction
>of n-1 objects.

This is a fairly major change, because it requires a "struct.Struct" object
to maintain state, something that the "struct" module currently does not
do.

In my personal opinion, this is a rather large and confusing change, for
very little benefit.
-- 
Tim Roberts, timr at probo.com
Providenza & Boekelheide, Inc.