[Raymond Hettinger]
> >List slice assignment is an example of a tool with a special case
optimization
> >for inputs that know their own length -- that enables the tool to
pre-allocate
> >its result rather than growing and resizing in spurts. Other such tools
include
> >tuple(), map() and zip().
[John Machin]
> My reading of the source: if the input is not a list or tuple, a
> (temporary) tuple is built from the input, using PySequence_Tuple() in
> abstract.c. If the input cannot report its own length, then that
> function resorts to "growing and resizing in spurts", using the
> following code:
>
> if (j >= n) {
> if (n < 500)
> n += 10;
> else
> n += 100;
> if (_PyTuple_Resize(&result, n) != 0) {
>
> Perhaps it could be changed to use a proportional increase, like
> list_resize() in listobject.c, which advertises (amortised) linear
> time.
Check out the current source. The time machine beat you to it.
Keep the faith,
Raymond Hettinger
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