This thread: http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2005-January/051255.html
discusses the problem with memory allocation in CPython. Apparently CPython is not good at, or incapable of, releasing memory back to the operating system. There are ways to compensate for this. I guess the comment about C modules was meant as one way to do so, either by reducing memory requirement in the first place (C data structures are more compact than Python) or else by allocating and freeing memory wholly in the C module, which perhaps does work as expected. The web page for Evan Jones does not obviously indicate the status of the improved memory allocator patch he was working on. I wonder if it is coming along. Incidentally, does anyone know the prospects for CPython to be made stackless? Say in 2.5 or 2.9? Or will that always be an independent project? -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
