[Python-Dev] Alternative implementation of string interning

[Greg Ewing]

Oren Tirosh <oren-py-d@hishome.net>:

> Tim Peters:
> 
> > What would the point be?  That is, instead of "why not?", why?  As to "why
> > not?", there's something about elevating what's basically an optimization
> > hack to a type that makes me squirm.
> 
> Change the name from 'istr' to 'symbol' and add a mild case of language envy
> and you'll see why ;-)

But in Lisp, symbols and strings really are completely
separate types. That's not the case in Python, and you
still haven't really given a reason why they should be.

Greg Ewing, Computer Science Dept, +--------------------------------------+
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