On 28.08.2009, at 14:29, Philippe Marschall wrote:

> 2009/8/28 Bert Freudenberg <bert at freudenbergs.de>:
>> ...
>> Wouldn't ByteArrays be a better way to efficiently store arrays of  
>> bytes?
>
> For arrays of bytes yes, for Latin-1 strings no.

But ByteStrings are not really Latin1. We just pretend they are, for  
display purposes.

>> Strings are conceptually made of Characters, and there are more  
>> than 256 of
>> them. E.g. a la Python 3:
>
> Sure, there are also Integers bigger than 2^30 - 1, that doesn't mean
> that SmallInteger is a stupid idea and should be dropped. Especially
> considering that WideStrings still have performance issues and bugs.

We're not talking about doing this in the immediate future I believe.  
But talking about it is valid.

- Bert -