[Python-Dev] reference counting in Py3K

[Christopher Armstrong]

On 9/7/05, Josiah Carlson <jcarlson at uci.edu> wrote:
> 
> Guido van Rossum <guido at python.org> wrote:
> > On 9/6/05, Greg Ewing <greg.ewing at canterbury.ac.nz> wrote:
> > > A better plan would be to build something akin to
> > > Pyrex into the scheme of things, so that all the
> > > refcount/GC issues are taken care of automatically.
> >
> > That sounds exciting. I have to admit that despite hearing many
> > enthusiastic reviews, I've never used it myself -- in fact I've
> > written very little C code in the last few years, and zero new
> > extension modules. (Lots of Java, but that's another story. :-)
> 
> Here's a perspective "from the trenches" as it were.
> 
> Encouraging its use for the writing of new extension modules: ick, -1.
> Writing pretty yet high performing Pyrex is an art that I'm not sure
> anyone can master.

I'd just like to put in that it seems like the suggestions to use
Pyrex were aimed at C-library wrapping extensions, not necessarily
ones that were written in C for performance (I gather that there are
very few of those, comparatively). So the encouragement to use Pyrex
for new extension modules still seems perfect, to me; its use should
definitely be encouraged when one needs to wrap some third-party
library, and I'd bet that that's the common case.

-- 
  Twisted   |  Christopher Armstrong: International Man of Twistery
   Radix    |    -- http://radix.twistedmatrix.com
            |  Release Manager, Twisted Project
  \\\V///   |    -- http://twistedmatrix.com
   |o O|    |  
w----v----w-+