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

[Stefan Behnel]

Dag Sverre Seljebotn, 26.05.2011 10:24:
> 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).

Well, dispatching to existing C-API functions is easy and can be done in 
Builtin.py. Moving that to .pxd files or not is a minor detail. The 
problems, as in this case, are that we often need to implement our own 
C-API and that we need to match defaulted arguments to suitable default 
values. I guess this could be done with inline methods, once we have 
something like overlay types in .pxd files.

What's the status of Cython implemented utility code, BTW?

Stefan