API : constness ?

[Delaney, Timothy C (Timothy)]

Benoît Dejean wrote:

> it's also for a simple reason, eg using PyArg_ParseTupleAndKeywords
> 
> using const helps gcc to move these data to the text segment
> 
> static const char * const kwlist[] = { "uri", "open_mode",
> "exclusive", "perm", NULL };

Does this give any performance or size improvement?

> or a better (but tricky)  storage could be used to avoid relocation
> 
> bust casting again again like this
> 
> PyArg_ParseTupleAndKeywords(args, kwargs, "should be const char *",
>                                      (char**)kwlist, ...
> 
> is quite ugly ...

If it will simplify calling code, I don't see any reason not to do it. However, there is a general policy of not doing large chunks of boilerplate fixing - instead it is encouraged to make these changes in code that is being actively worked on for some other reason. Small patches are good.

Perhaps you should choose a few cases that bug you the most (e.g. PyArg_ParseTupleAndKeywords) and submit a patch just for those.

Additionally, if you can show a performance improvement as a result (and importantly, no loss of performance on Windows ...) it's more likely to be reviewed kindly ... ;)

Tim Delaney