StaticTuple... naming, maintenance, ...

[INADA Naoki]

> 3) C/Cython/Pyrex
>   The #1 memory benefit is removing the python GC header from all of
>   the objects. (16 bytes / object.)
>   I can easily define such a type in C, and have done so.
>
>   However, as you get into doing more with these objects, (like
>   creating a C level api to share with other code), there is a *lot*
>   more maintenance overhead in doing it from C.
>
>   You have to do all the exception handling manually, *and* write all
>   of the boilerplate for exposing the dynamic loading of functions.
>   In Pyrex/Cython doing so is:
>
>      cdef object myfunc(object):
>
>    becomes
>
>      cdef api object myfunc(object):
>
>    Doing so in C is about 4 lines of boilerplate per function, type
>    checking, etc. Plus another 20+ lines that you have to write to
>    describe that you *have* a C api that should be loaded.
>
>
>    In the end, I wrote "StaticTuple" in C, and "StaticTupleInterner" in
>    Cython, and the latter took a day, and the former took a week. It is
>    a "sunk cost", but ongoing maintenance is not.
>
>    The main issue here is that Pyrex will not generate objects without
>    the HAVE_GC flag set. Cython >= 0.11 can (as long as you don't have
>    'object' attributes, which is true here, because I have to use
>    PyObject** because neither Pyrex nor Cython support C arrays of
>    objects)
>
>    The difficulty is that would be a hard jump to go from Python 0.8 or
>    so (doesn't even support +=) to Cython 0.11 (it is in Karmic, but
>    Jaunty only have Cython 0.10).
>
>    I would *really* like to switch to Cython 0.11+, as I have specific
>    benefits. One could argue that we could try to be compatible, and
>    people can compile using Pyrex, and just wouldn't get the memory and
>    speed improvement of avoiding the GC...
>
>    I'm also using stuff like 'cpdef' and 'inline', but I can work
>    around those things easily enough. I can't hack the 'HAVE_GC' flag
>    easily.
>

I think installing Cython to local is not a big problem.
And I love Cython, too.

-- 
Naoki INADA  <songofacandy at gmail.com>