Re: basic_string capacity strategy < 128 characters

[Phil Edwards <phil at jaj dot com>]

On Wed, Jun 11, 2003 at 10:36:31PM +0200, Paolo Carlini wrote:
> A quick comment (more later): asymptotic (i.e., amortized) linear 
> bahavior is something very precisely defined, as the concept of 
> asymptote is in basic calculus. It means that does not matter what 
> happens for small numbers, only what happens when the number becomes 
> larger and larger. This is only to point out that our implementation, as 
> far as this issue is concerned, is _absolutely_ conforming.

Yep.

> That the behavior for small strings, a well defined allocator, a well 
> defined architecture and a well defined application can be improved is 
> another matter.

<musing style="random" mode="aloud">

I wonder how much work it would be to store the initial N characters in the
basic_string itself as a member array, and not even bother with allocating
until capacity() grows beyond N.  For small strings, where small <= N,
I'm told this can be a performance boost.

Yet another ABI-destroying change, wheee!

</musing>

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