[Python-ideas] Implicit string literal concatenation considered harmful?

[Serhiy Storchaka]

11.05.13 13:00, Stefan Behnel написав(ла):
> Plus, such an optimisation can have a downside. Contrived example:
>
>      if DEBUG:
>          print('a'.replace('a', 'aaaaaaaa').replace('a', 'aaaaaaaa')
>                .replace('a', 'aaaaaaaa').replace('a', 'aaaaaaaa')
>                .replace('a', 'aaaaaaaa').replace('a', 'aaaaaaaa'))
>
> Expanding this into a string literal will trade space for time, whereas the
> original code clearly trades time for space. The same applies to string
> splitting. A list of many short strings takes up more space than a split
> call on one large string.
>
> May not seem like a major concern in most cases that involve string
> literals, but we shouldn't ignore the possibility that the author of the
> code might have used the explicit method call quite deliberately.

x = 0
if x:
     x = 9**9**9