using a custom, nearly-identical macro. This probably changes how some of
these functions are compiled, which may result in fractionally slower (or
faster) execution. Considering the nature of traversal, visiting much of the
address space in unpredictable patterns, I'd argue the code readability and
maintainability is well worth it ;P
PyTypeObject structures, I had to make prototypes for the functions, and
move the structure definition ahead of the functions. I'd dearly like a better
way to do this - to change this would make for a massive set of changes to
the codebase.
There's still some warnings - this is purely to get rid of errors first.
In C++, it's an error to pass a string literal to a char* function
without a const_cast(). Rather than require every C++ extension
module to put a cast around string literals, fix the API to state the
const-ness.
I focused on parts of the API where people usually pass literals:
PyArg_ParseTuple() and friends, Py_BuildValue(), PyMethodDef, the type
slots, etc. Predictably, there were a large set of functions that
needed to be fixed as a result of these changes. The most pervasive
change was to make the keyword args list passed to
PyArg_ParseTupleAndKewords() to be a const char *kwlist[].
One cast was required as a result of the changes: A type object
mallocs the memory for its tp_doc slot and later frees it.
PyTypeObject says that tp_doc is const char *; but if the type was
created by type_new(), we know it is safe to cast to char *.
Fix over-aggressive PyErr_Clear(). The same code fragment appears in
various guises in list.extend(), map(), filter(), zip(), and internally
in PySequence_Tuple().
Also, add a testcase.
Formerly, the list_extend() code used several local variables to remember
its state across iterations. Since an iteration could call arbitrary
Python code, it was possible for the list state to be changed. The new
code uses dynamic structure references instead of C locals. So, they
are always up-to-date.
After list_resize() is called, its size has been updated but the new
cells are filled with NULLs. These needed to be filled before arbitrary
iteration code was called; otherwise, that code could attempt to modify
a list that was in a semi-invalid state. The solution was to change
the ob->size field back to a value reflecting the actual number of valid
cells.
The list resizing scheme only downsized when more than 16 elements were
removed in a single step: del a[100:120]. As a result, the list would
never shrink when popping elements off one at a time.
This patch makes it shrink whenever more than half of the space is unused.
Also, at Tim's suggestion, renamed _new_size to new_allocated. This makes
the code easier to understand.
comma expression in listpop() that was being returned. Still essentially
unused (as it is meant to be), but now the compiler thinks it is worth
*something* by having it incremented.
of no more than 8 elements cannot fail.
listpop(): Take advantage of that its calls to list_resize() and
list_ass_slice() can't fail. This is assert'ed in a debug build now, but
in an icky way. That is, you can't say:
assert(some_call() >= 0);
because then some_call() won't occur at all in a release build. So it
has to be a big pile of #ifdefs on Py_DEBUG (yuck), or the pleasant:
status = some_call();
assert(status >= 0);
But in that case, compilers may whine in a release build, because status
appears unused then. I'm not certain the ugly trick I used here will
convince all compilers to shut up about status (status is always "used" now,
as the first (ignored) clause in a comma expression).
impossible to remember, so renamed one to something obvious. Headed
off potential signed-vs-unsigned compiler complaints I introduced by
changing the type of a vrbl to unsigned. Removed the need for the
tedious explanation about "backward pointer loops" by looping on an
int instead.
result.
list_resize(): Document the intent. Code is increasingly relying on
subtle aspects of its behavior, and they deserve to be spelled out.
list_ass_slice(): A bit more simplification, by giving it a common
error exit and initializing more values.
Be clearer in comments about what "size" means (# of elements? # of
bytes?).
While the number of elements in a list slice must fit in an int, there's
no guarantee that the number of bytes occupied by the slice will. That
malloc() and memmove() take size_t arguments is a hint about that <wink>.
So changed to use size_t where appropriate.
ihigh - ilow should always be >= 0, but we never asserted that. We do
now.
The loop decref'ing the recycled slice had a subtle insecurity: C doesn't
guarantee that a pointer one slot *before* an array will compare "less
than" to a pointer within the array (it does guarantee that a pointer
one beyond the end of the array compares as expected). This was actually
an issue in KSR's C implementation, so isn't purely theoretical. Python
probably has other "go backwards" loops with a similar glitch.
list_clear() is OK (it marches an integer backwards, not a pointer).
