[Python-Dev] Re: Fast access to __builtins__

[Greg Ewing]

Raymond Hettinger <python@rcn.com>:

> * Scanning my own sources, it looks like some of the builtins
>    almost never appear inside loops (dir, map, filter, zip, dict, range).
>    The ones that are in loops usually do something simple (int, str,
>    chr, len).  Either way, builtin access never seems to dominate
>    the running time.  OTOH, maybe that's just the way I write code.

That's probably true in the large. However, sometimes one has a tight
little loop that makes lots of calls to a builtin. I've occasionally
improved the speed of something noticeably using the
copy-a-builtin-to-a-local trick.

Maybe for these cases there could be a "builtin" declaration, like
"global" but declaring that something is to be found in the builtin
scope?

Greg Ewing, Computer Science Dept, +--------------------------------------+
University of Canterbury,	   | A citizen of NewZealandCorp, a	  |
Christchurch, New Zealand	   | wholly-owned subsidiary of USA Inc.  |
greg@cosc.canterbury.ac.nz	   +--------------------------------------+