Deleting specific characters from a string

[Jeff Hinrichs]

First off, (holding hat in hand), I reread the profile module and then set
my profiler up correctly with the proper bias setting. Things have changed
but only slightly.  Duncan Booth's maketrans/translate is edging out the
stringReplace for first place in speed.  Looks to be with in the margin of
error for timing on my windows platform.

I am rerunning the entire test suite with the profiler set up correctly.  I
am also throwing Paul Rubin's RegEx entry in to the race as well.  I've got
a web page going together now with all the mind numbing details.  The short
story is that Duncan's suggestion of maketrans/translate looks like it will
pull ahead when the number of substitutions increase beyond some number N.
Right now, I don't know what N is going to be.

In terms of the OP's original request for replacing 2 chars, Duncan's and
stringReplace are dead even.  With my vote going for stringReplace.  +0

I'll post the url when it's complete along with my test harness and the code
for everyone to pick apart.  If I've made mistakes I would appreciate
anyones assistance in pointing them out.  Personally, I'm using this as a
chance to beef up my profiling knowledge.

more to follow,
Jeff Hinrichs