On 02/02/2012 11:30, Chris Withers wrote:
On 01/02/2012 17:50, Guido van Rossum wrote:
Another question: a common pattern is to use (immutable) class variables as default values for instance variables, and only set the instance variables once they need to be different. Does such a class benefit from your improvement?
A less common pattern, but which still needs to work, is where a mutable class variable is deliberately store state across all instances of a class...
Given that Mark's patch passes the Python test suite I'm sure basic patterns like this *work*, the question is which of them take advantage of the improved memory efficiency. In the case you mention I don't think it's an issue at all, because the class level attribute doesn't (generally) appear in instance dicts. What's also common is where the class holds a *default* value for instances, which may be overridden by an instance attribute on *some* instances. All the best, Michael Foord
Chris
-- http://www.voidspace.org.uk/ May you do good and not evil May you find forgiveness for yourself and forgive others May you share freely, never taking more than you give. -- the sqlite blessing http://www.sqlite.org/different.html