[Python-Dev] Optimization targets - refcount

[Guido van Rossum]

> I think the idea is more that you could skip the 'Py_INCREF(Py_None)', 
> which is a fairly common prelude to 'return Py_None'.  You'd set their 
> refcounts to the maximum possible value, and the deallocation function 
> would simply reset the refcount to maximum again.
> 
> I'm not sure, however, that this would be common enough to be helpful.  It 
> seems to me Py_INCREF should effectively translate to only a single machine 
> instruction or two.  I mean, it's just incrementing an integer whose 
> address is known at compile time.

I vaguely recall that this was proposed and perhaps even tried before,
and not found to make a difference.

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