[Python-Dev] Deprecate the buffer object?

[Troels Walsted Hansen]

Raymond Hettinger wrote:

> At least the builtin buffer function should go away.
> Even if someone had a use for it, it would not make-up for all the time
> lost by all the other people trying to figure what it was good for.

I trust you will preserve the functionality though?

I have used the buffer() function to achieve great leaps in performance 
in applications which send data from a string buffer to a socket. 
Slicing kills performance in this scenario once buffer sizes get beyond 
a few 100 kB.

Below is example from an asyncore.dispatcher subclass. This code sends 
chunks with maximum size, without ever slicing the buffer.

     def handle_write(self):
         if self.buffer_offset:
             sent = self.send(buffer(self.buffer, self.buffer_offset))
         else:
             sent = self.send(self.buffer)
         self.buffer_offset += sent
         if self.buffer_offset == len(self.buffer):
             del self.buffer

Troels