Python example: possible speedup?

[Tim Peters]

[Robert Vollmert]
> the following code is about five times faster here. That means it's
> faster than perl, I suppose :-).

[Hrvoje Niksic]
> Wow, this *is* fast.  However, it also loses in generality.  For
> instance, if I wanted to do anything else, I'd have to rewrite it
> completely.

Was the Perl code to which you're comparing it as general as your Python
code?

conservation-of-agony-ly y'rs  - tim