[Python-ideas] FW: Idea: Compressing the stack on the fly

[Andrew Barnert]

Why is everyone suddenly responding to a thread that died months ago? If anyone really wants to re-propose the idea, they should at least go back and look over the discussion that followed it.


----- Original Message -----
> From: Westley Martínez <anikom15 at gmail.com>
> To: python-ideas at python.org
> Cc: 
> Sent: Wednesday, September 11, 2013 9:12 PM
> Subject: [Python-ideas] FW:  Idea: Compressing the stack on the fly
> 
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Westley Martínez [mailto:anikom15 at gmail.com] 
> Sent: Wednesday, September 11, 2013 9:03 PM
> To: 'Ram Rachum'; 'python-ideas at googlegroups.com'
> Cc: 'Ram Rachum'
> Subject: RE: [Python-ideas] Idea: Compressing the stack on the fly
> 
>>  -----Original Message-----
>>  From: Python-ideas [mailto:python-ideas-
>>  bounces+anikom15=gmail.com at python.org] On Behalf Of Ram Rachum
>>  Sent: Sunday, May 26, 2013 5:00 AM
>>  To: python-ideas at googlegroups.com
>>  Cc: Ram Rachum
>>  Subject: [Python-ideas] Idea: Compressing the stack on the fly
>> 
>>  So what I'm suggesting is an algorithm to compress that stack on the
>>  fly. An algorithm that would detect regularities in the stack and
>>  instead of saving each individual frame, save just the pattern. Then,
>>  there wouldn't be any problem with showing informative stack trace:
>>  Despite not storing every individual frame, each individual frame
>>  could still be accessed, similarly to how `xrange` allow access to
>>  each individual member without having to store each of them.
>> 
>> 
>>  Then, the stack could store a lot more items, and tasks that currently
>>  require recursion (like pickling using the standard library) will be
>>  able to handle much deeper recursions.
>> 
>> 
>>  What do you think?
> 
> I think this is an interesting idea.  It sounds possible, but the
> question is whether or not it can be efficiently done with Python.
> 
> I'd heed Guido's advice in first implementing this.  It could probably
> be done effectively with a compiled language like C, but I'd imagine
> it'd be too difficult for Python.
> 
> The other question is usability.  What would this actually be used for.
> I'm not a fan of recursion.  I think anything that uses recursion could
> be restructured into something simpler.  A lot of people find recursion
> to be elegant.  For me it just hurts my brain.
> 
> 
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