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[Python-Dev] Accessing globals without dict lookup

Tim Peters tim.one@comcast.net
Mon, 11 Feb 2002 23:45:06 -0500 
[Ping]
>>     1.  There are going to be lots of global-cell objects.
>>         Perhaps they should get their own allocator and free list.

[Guido]
> Yes.

No no no no no, and 5*-1 beats a +1 even from the BDFL <wink>.

Vanilla pymalloc is perfect for this:  many small objects.  A custom free
list for cells is a waste of code, because a cell never goes away until the
module does:  cells will not "churn".  We'll get a lot of them, but most of
them will stay alive until the program ends, so the tiny performance gain
you may be able to get from a thoroughly specialized free list "in theory"
will never be realized in practice.