[Python-Dev] 3.3 str timings

[martin at v.loewis.de]

Zitat von Terry Reedy <tjreedy at udel.edu>:

> I was and am posting here in response to a certain French writer who  
> dislikes the fact that 3.3 unicode favors text written with the  
> first 256 code points, which do not include all the characters  
> needed for French, and do not include the euro symbol invented years  
> after that set was established. His opinion aside, his search for  
> 'evidence' did turn up a version of the example below.

I personally don't see a need to "defend" this or any other deliberate
change. There is a need to defend changes before they are made, to convince
co-contributors and other Python users, this is what the PEP process is
good for. One point of the PEP process is that once the PEP is accepted,
discussion ought to stop - or anybody continuing in discussion doesn't
deserve an answer by anybody not interested.

Anybody who doesn't like the change is free not to use Python 3.3, or
stay at 2.7, use PyPy, or switch to Ruby altogether. Neither bothers
me to the slightest. If people find proper bugs, they are encouraged
to report them; if they contribute patches along, the better. If they
merely want to complain - let them complain. If they want to see an
agreed-upon patch reverted, they can try to lobby a BDFL pronouncement.

I certainly think the performance of str in 3.3 is fine, and thought
so even before Serhiy or Victor submitted their patches. I actually
dislike some of the code complication that these improvements brought,
but I can accept that a certain loss of maintainability that gives
better performance makes a lot of people happy. But I will continue
to object further complications that support irrelevant special
cases.

Regards,
Martin