Looking under Python's hood: Will we find a high performance or clunky engine?

[Michael Torrie]

On 01/22/2012 08:50 AM, Rick Johnson wrote:
> 
> What does Python do when presented with this code?
> 
> py> [line.strip('\n') for line in f.readlines()]
> 
> If Python reads all the file lines first and THEN iterates AGAIN to do
> the strip; we are driving a Fred flintstone mobile. If however Python
> strips each line of the lines passed into readlines in one fell swoop,
> we made the correct choice.
> 
> Which is it Pythonistas? Which is it?

You're doing it wrong, obviously.  I'm actually surprised that an expert
such as yourself would read a file in this way.  In any language.
Surely you would iterate over the file object which is the obvious way
to do it.

I guess we'll chalk this up as another python pitfall.  Looking forward
to your programming language which will prevent such things while
maintaining the purity and beauty of Python's ideals.