SF patch #947476: Apply freelist technique to lists
Re-use list object bodies. Saves calls to malloc() and free() for
faster list instantiation and deallocation.
diff --git a/Misc/NEWS b/Misc/NEWS
index c26b09b..983c548 100644
--- a/Misc/NEWS
+++ b/Misc/NEWS
@@ -54,6 +54,9 @@
the overallocation is no more than three elements -- this improves space
utilization for applications that have large numbers of small lists.
+- Most list bodies now get re-used rather than freed. Speeds up list
+ instantiation and deletion by saving calls to malloc() and free().
+
- The dict.update() method now accepts all the same argument forms
as the dict() constructor. This now includes item lists and/or
keyword arguments.