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[Python-Dev] RE: [Python-checkins] python/dist/src/Objects typeobject.c, 2.244, 2.245

Armin Rigo arigo at tunes.org
Fri Oct 24 08:46:06 EDT 2003 
Hello Guido,

On Wed, Oct 08, 2003 at 08:45:45PM -0700, Guido van Rossum wrote:
>   Py_INCREF(Py_True);
>   return Py_True;
> 
> takes less time than
> 
>   return PyBool_FromLong(1);
> 
> Maybe a pair of macros Py_return_True and Py_return_False would make
> sense?

Sorry if this was already suggested and hastily rejected, but why do we care
at all about the reference counter of the few heavily-used immortal objects of
CPython?

I guess allowing their counter not to be carefully maintained ventures to the
slippery slopes of bad code.  Anyway, my two cents for a (very) slightly
faster and shorter code would be to be allowed never to do Py_INCREF or
Py_DECREF when we know that the object is Py_None, Py_False or Py_True.  These
three would have a dummy tp_dealloc that just resets the reference counter to
some large value if it ever reaches zero.


Armin
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