Summary
[EuroPython 2011] Cesare Di Mauro - 24 June 2011 in "Track Ravioli "
Description
Beginning with Python 3 the old integer ("int") type has gone leaving the place to "long", which replaced it giving a unique, uniform type to deal with integers. However longs need a more complex structure which effectively dropped a bit of Python 3.x performance. Looking at their implementation, an idea grown that can help to improve the situation on common sceneries (using "short" integers). A slightly changed structure will be presented and compared with the old PyIntObject and the current Python 3.2 PyLongObject, along with some optimizations, thoughts, and issues found on the road, which will show the effort required by such change on a Python core element.