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Date: Thu, 22 Jan 2015 08:26:29 +1100
Subject: Re: How to "wow" someone new to Python
From: Chris Angelico <rosuav@gmail.com>
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Xref: csiph.com comp.lang.python:84142

On Thu, Jan 22, 2015 at 8:20 AM, Matthew Ruffalo <mmr15@case.edu> wrote:
> Yes, length-unlimited strings are *extremely* useful in some
> applications. I remember bitterly cursing Java's string length limit of
> 2 ** 31 (maybe - 1) on multiple occasions. Python's strings seem to
> behave like integers in that their size is limited only by available memory.

Hmm, I don't know that you'll get much beyond 2**31 characters (even
all-ASCII characters in PEP 393) on a 32-bit Python, simply because
"available memory" is capped at 2**32 bytes minus other stuff. You'd
need a 64-bit Python to do that, and I would guess a 64-bit Java would
also raise the limit.

ChrisA