[Python-3000] long/int unification

[Guido van Rossum]

On 8/25/06, Fredrik Lundh <fredrik at pythonware.com> wrote:
> Josiah Carlson wrote:
>
> > In the integer case, it reminds me of James Knight's tagged integer
> > patch to 2.3 [1].  If using long exclusively is 50% slower, why not try
> > the improved speed approach?
>
> looks like GvR was -1000 on this idea at the time, though...

I still am, because it requires extra tests for every incref and
decref and also for every use of an object's type pointer. I worry
about the cost of these tests, but I worry much more about the bugs it
will add when people don't tests first. ABC used this approach and we
kept finding bugs due to this problem.

-- 
--Guido van Rossum (home page: http://www.python.org/~guido/)