[Python-3000] Making more effective use of slice objects in Py3k

[Fredrik Lundh]

Guido van Rossum wrote:

> BTW, in some sense Python 2.x *has* polymorphic strings -- str and
> unicde have the same API (99% anyway) but different implementations,
> and there's even a common abstract base class (basestring). But this
> clearly isn't what the ObjectiveC folks want to see!

on the Python level, absolutely.  the "use 8-bit strings for ASCII, 
Unicode strings for everything else" approach works perfectly well.

I'm still a bit worried about C API complexities, but as I mentioned, in 
today's Python, only 8-bit strings are really simple.  and there are 
standard ways to deal with backing stores; if that's good enough for 
apple hackers, it should be good enough for pythoneers.

most of this can be prototyped and benchmarked under 2.X, and parts of 
it can be directly useful also for 2.X developers; I think I'll start 
tinkering.

> These people are quite familiar with ObjectiveC. ObjectiveC has true
> polymorphic strings, and the internal representation *can* be UTF-8.
> These developers love that.

you are aware that Objective C does provide B-tree strings under the 
hood too, I hope ;-)

</F>