From: Vladimir Marangozov <Vladimir.Marangozov@imag.fr>
Subject: [ANN] A memory allocator for Python available
Date: Thu, 21 May 1998 01:32:12 GMT


This is to announce the availability of the first beta release of a new
introspective, plug-in memory allocator for Python. As any first
public release, it relies on your interest in it and your feedback.

It is available at:  http://starship.skyport.net/~vlad/pymalloc/


Here is a short description:

This is a memory allocator for Python, named "pymalloc", which
provides an implementation of the standard C library functions
malloc, calloc, realloc and free, according to the POSIX standard.
It was developed mainly for two purposes:

Introspection.  Being able to analyze how a particular program uses the
memory it allocates from the system can bring significant improvements
to the program, both during its design and execution. Memory usage
profiles very often reveal hidden aspects of the real program behavior.
This malloc provides facilities for building memory profiles which
include several statistics on memory usage: allocated memory, unfreed
memory, memory traces, etc. 

Performance.  Memory profile analyses usually clarify our understanding
of the program's memory needs. If the program allocates and releases
memory blocks intensively, one can implement a special-purpose memory
allocator which can lead to better performance at runtime. This malloc
implements an allocation strategy, adapted to Python's memory usage,
which competes with the underlying (general-purpose) system allocator.

-- 
       Vladimir MARANGOZOV          | Vladimir.Marangozov@inrialpes.fr
http://sirac.inrialpes.fr/~marangoz | tel:(+33-4)76615277 fax:76615252