[Python-checkins] python/dist/src/Misc NEWS,1.471,1.472

[tim_one@users.sourceforge.net]

Update of /cvsroot/python/python/dist/src/Misc
In directory usw-pr-cvs1:/tmp/cvs-serv1138

Modified Files:
	NEWS 
Log Message:
Newly-relaxed limits on random.randrange().  Also added some info about
Karatsuba's better cache behavior with extremely large multiplicands.


Index: NEWS
===================================================================
RCS file: /cvsroot/python/python/dist/src/Misc/NEWS,v
retrieving revision 1.471
retrieving revision 1.472
diff -C2 -d -r1.471 -r1.472
*** NEWS	16 Aug 2002 03:38:10 -0000	1.471
--- NEWS	16 Aug 2002 03:40:07 -0000	1.472
***************
*** 94,102 ****
    Karatsuba multiplication has O(N**1.58) runtime (the exponent is
    log_base_2(3)) instead of the previous O(N**2).  Measured results may
!   be better or worse than that, depending on platform quirks.  Note that
!   this is a simple implementation, and there's no intent here to compete
!   with, e.g., GMP.  It gives a very nice speedup when it applies, but
!   a package devoted to fast large-integer arithmetic should run circles
!   around it.
  
  - u'%c' will now raise a ValueError in case the argument is an
--- 94,104 ----
    Karatsuba multiplication has O(N**1.58) runtime (the exponent is
    log_base_2(3)) instead of the previous O(N**2).  Measured results may
!   be better or worse than that, depending on platform quirks.  Besides
!   the O() improvement in raw instruction count, the Karatsuba algorithm
!   appears to have much better cache behavior on extremely large integers
!   (starting in the ballpark of a million bits).  Note that this is a
!   simple implementation, and there's no intent here to compete with,
!   e.g., GMP.  It gives a very nice speedup when it applies, but a package
!   devoted to fast large-integer arithmetic should run circles around it.
  
  - u'%c' will now raise a ValueError in case the argument is an
***************
*** 296,299 ****
--- 298,306 ----
  
  Library
+ 
+ - random.randrange(-sys.maxint-1, sys.maxint) no longer raises
+   OverflowError.  That is, it now accepts any combination of 'start'
+   and 'stop' arguments so long as each is in the range of Python's
+   bounded integers.
  
  - New "algorithms" module: heapq, implements a heap queue.  Thanks to