[Python-Dev] PySet API

[Raymond Hettinger]

[Raymond Hettinger]
> > Barry, go ahead with PySet_Clear().

[Barry]
Cool thanks.  I think we've also compromised on _PySet_Next(), correct?

Yes, _PySet_Next() is a good compromise for you and me -- it saves you from 
writing a hack and saves my API from including a bug factory.  The only issue is 
that Martin thinks it to be a crummy idea.  Personally, I have no problem with 
putting-in an undocumented hook for daring people who aspire to swim in 
quicksand ;-)



[Raymond Hettinger]
> > The story is different for PySet_Update().  Defining it now could get in the 
> > way
> > of possible future development for the module (the function may end-up 
> > taking a
> > variable length argument list instead of a single argument).
>
> So why not just go ahead and do that now?  If you know that's what you
> want eventually, why wait?  From my perspective, adding a NULL at the
> end of the argument list wouldn't be that big of a deal.

[Barry]
>  BTW, I'm willing to do the work on this.  I'm already going to update my
> patch anyway to reflect our current decisions, so I'm happy to do this
> while I'm at it.  I'll try to get a new patch posted in a day or so.

The idea is not yet ready for prime-time.  If I do it for one of the named 
operations, I will do it for all (to keep the interface uniform).  I haven't yet 
had the time to work-out the math on whether it would be worthwhile and provide 
some differential advantage over simply repeating the same operation several 
times over.  My research question is whether work can be saved by controlling 
the order of operations -- the concept is somewhat like optimizing multi-term 
matrix multiplication where the total work effort can vary dramatically 
depending on which matrices are multiplied together first, A((BC)D) vs (AB)(CD) 
vs (A(BC))D etc.  Put in business terms, the question is whether I'm able to 
leverage the associative and commutative properties of some chained set 
operations.   FWIW, the module already has optimizations to take advantage of 
the commutative property of binary AND, OR, and SYMMETRIC_DIFFERENCE operations. 
However, the multi-term optimization probably wait until Py2.6 -- it is too 
experimental for now.


Raymond