[Python-Dev] Python memory model (low level)

Fri Jun 30 22:16:09 CEST 2006

Nick Maclaren <nmm1 at cus.cam.ac.uk> wrote:
> "Tim Peters" <tim.peters at gmail.com> wrote:
>> [ Many useful answers ]
>> Thanks very much! That helps. Here are a few points where we are at
> cross-purposes.
[snip]
> I believe that, using the above approach, it would be possible to
> achieve good efficiency with very little C - certainly, it has worked
> in other languages.

If I understand you correctly (I apologize if I am not), you are talking
about subclassing. Subclassing already has a mechanism and
implementation in CPython, both in the Python-language and
C-implementation levels. Further, I would expect that everything
relating to Decimal's current functionality (contexts, etc.) will be
implemented appropriately. If I were to offer any advice to you, it
would be to relax for a few months and let the Google Summer of Code
project complete. I have faith in Facundo's mentoring capability (in
that I have faith in his original decimal implementation), and I expect
that the C implementation of Decimal will satisfy the vast majority of
your concerns about floating point math and Python.
 - Josiah