[python-win32] Python and Windows XP/2003 low-fragmentation heap

[Gfeller Martin]

Hi,

did anyone attempt or succeed running Python using the low-fragmentation heap introduced by Windows XP and 2003 Server? (http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/memory/base/low_fragmentation_heap.asp)

The low-fragmentation heap seems to specificially geared towards interpreted languages that perform frequent small mallocs. In our application, I suspect some heap fragmentation bottlenecks (typical scenario: The second run of the a large program in the same process runs slower than the first), even on Python 2.3.3, with its improved object allocator (which I think is only invokved for very small structures; rather than for larger mappings and sequences). 

I'm interested in (i) performance comparisons, (ii) on how to make standard Python run with it (as Python is compiled using MSVC++, which seems to create its own heap, I don't know how to get at the heap handle).

Thank you and best regards,
Martin Gfeller
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