On Wednesday 23 August 2006 02:57, Lenard Lindstrom wrote:
>  ... The instance dict is searched only if one is not
>  found. So having a descriptor reduces the search time. And a slot
>  descriptor does not do a dict lookup. So slots should be faster,
>  though I have not confirmed it.

The function call overhead (for the getter) is much greater than the fallback 
to a dict lookup (which is insanely fast). We did some optimisation of 
function calls at the Need For Speed sprint in Iceland, but I only managed to 
squeeze out a 5% improvement (aka "noise") and others didn't fare much 
better. I'd be interested to see some *actual* numbers, but I'd be surprised 
if slots are faster than regular attributes. Unless there's been some 
slot-specific optimisation I've missed along the way :)


     Richard