2008/5/22 Scott Dial <scott+python-dev@scottdial.com>:
If we changed Python to slice-by-reference, then tomorrow someone would be asking why it isn't slice-by-copy. There are pros and cons to both that are
Which are the cons of slice-by-reference of an immutable string?
dependent on your application. It's not hard to imagine applications where you want to hold onto a small portion of a large string, thereby forcing the entire string to remain in memory. If a slices had a copy method, then I
This is a garbage collection issue. It's real, and maybe could be optimized somehow... but I think that this un-optimization is by far smaller than the optimization of not copying it in the first place. -- . Facundo Blog: http://www.taniquetil.com.ar/plog/ PyAr: http://www.python.org/ar/