[Cython] [cython] Initial startswith / endswith optimization (#35)

[Dag Sverre Seljebotn]

On 05/26/2011 10:12 AM, Stefan Behnel wrote:
> Robert Bradshaw, 26.05.2011 09:40:
>> the pattern of swapping out builtin methods (and perhaps
>> functions) with more optimized C versions is something that perhaps it
>> would be good to be able to do more generally, rather than hard coding
>> the list into Optimize.py.
>
> Right. All that would really be needed is a way to define default values
> for arguments of builtin methods. Then most of the method optimisations
> could be moved into Builtin.py.

BTW, the idea of the overlay stuff Robert referred to was that we could 
add syntax to pxd files so that the "unicode" type and its alternative 
method implementations could be fleshed out in a pxd file (and the same 
with other standard library or third-party types that are not written 
with Cython support in mind, but may have a C API that we want to 
dispatch to instead of their Python API).

Dag Sverre