I wrote:

python 1.5: 1.02 seconds python 2.0: 1.95 seconds python 2.1: 1.85 seconds python 2.2: 1.90 seconds

doh. forgot to disable GC for 2.0 and later. with GC switched off, the difference is a bit smaller. python 1.5: 1.02 seconds python 2.0: 1.30 seconds python 2.1: 1.20 seconds python 2.2: 1.05 seconds now replace [None, None, None] with [item, item, item]: python 1.5: 0.58 seconds python 2.0: 0.85 seconds python 2.1: 0.69 seconds python 2.2: 0.71 seconds playing with other dosomething bodies (and with GC switched off), I've noticed that the following things has gotten slower from 1.5.2 to 2.2: - concatenating strings (item+item+item is 20% slower) - calling the float builtin using global lookup (20% slower) - list and tuple forming using locals (10-20% slower) </F>