I have the impression you are looking at this too much from the view of the current implementation where putting a an entry in a directory is seen as an atomic operation.
Yes and no. I *am* looking at it from an implementation point of view, but dictionaries have nothing to do with the relevant part of the implementation.
The CPython *_FAST opcodes relate to functions' local variables. Behind the scenes they are implemented as integer indexing operations into a pre-sized C array. Operations don't come much faster than that :)
Could a rebinding operation *theoretically* be quicker for the other cases which involve a real dictionary (or something that looks like one)? Well, perhaps. Although I can't see how the rebinding operation would gain a benefit that a standard binding operation wouldn't gain if placed at the exact same point.
Cheers, Nick.
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Nick Coghlan | [EMAIL PROTECTED] | Brisbane, Australia
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http://boredomandlaziness.skystorm.net
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