[Python-Dev] Allowing Unicode literals even without Unicode support?

[M.-A. Lemburg]

Guido van Rossum wrote:
>>People have requested this because they were shocked of the increase
>>in size of the Python interpreter, which primarily originates from the
>>Unicode character database. While I think people would get over their
>>shock as time passes, I think creating a "small" interpreter for
>>special-purpose applications is desirable, and just deleting Unicode
>>support in such a build was (and still is) a low-hanging fruit.
> 
> 
> I wanted to make a gesture towards the developers of the PalmOS port
> (Pippy), who have struggled mightily to keep memory usage small.  But
> nothing is happening there (I've asked them to make it a SF project
> but apparently Endeavors Technology refuses).
> 
> I think the iPAQ has enough memory to support Unicode, and that's the
> only small platform I'm aware of that uses Python.  Of course, there
> are probably other embedded platforms -- but they have to speak up.
> 
> BTW, the savings aren't that big.  I built Python with all the
> configure options disabled that I could find (hm, there's no way to
> disable complex from the command line so that's still in) and here are
> the sizes:
> 
>    text    data     bss     dec     hex filename     (file size)
>  531629   92336    9804  633769   9aba9 small_python (1904k)
>  613718  117588   11612  742918   b5606 python       (2168k)

Note that the Unicode database is not included in the standard
Python interpreter build. It is separated out as module which
nowadays is only built as shared module.

Now, I don't know whether e.g. Palm OS can support shared modules,
but I suppose that's where you get the savings.

Don't know whether it's worth our trouble though.

-- 
Marc-Andre Lemburg
CEO eGenix.com Software GmbH
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