Why don't strings share data in Python?

[Mike Coleman]

sjmachin at lexicon.net (John Machin) writes:
> 1. Explain the utility of having a dict d such that d[foo] == foo, for
> *all* foo in d. If all you want is logically a set, not a mapping, do
> d[suffix] = 1.

Yeah, I was just generating an example.  I should have used '1'--the real
problem is exactly the same either way.

The closest thing to a solution here was to look at the semi-documented
'buffer' objects.  Thanks to who suggested that.

> 2. google("suffix tree"); google("suffix array")

Well, if a good suffix tree library existed, that'd be good, too.  The only
one I see right now looks like it has some fairly severe implementation
limits.  (Well, severe if you like your objects by the million...  ;-)

Mike