>> optimizing python performance while keeping idiomatic?
That's impossible[1].
I think it is impossible because when i identify a slow function using cProfile then use dis.dis() on it to view the instructions executed, most of the overhead - by that i mean time spent doing something other than the calculation the code describes - is spent determining what each "thing" is. It's all trails of calls trying to determine "this thing can't be __add__() to that thing but maybe that thing can be __radd()__ to this thing instead. Long way to say most of the time wasting instructions i see can be attacked by providing ctypes or some other approach like that (mypyc, maybe cython, etc etc) - but at this point you're well beyond "idiomatic".
[1] I'm really curious to know the answer to your question so i'll post a confident (but hopefully wrong) answer so that someone feels compelled to correct me :-)
That's impossible[1].
I think it is impossible because when i identify a slow function using cProfile then use dis.dis() on it to view the instructions executed, most of the overhead - by that i mean time spent doing something other than the calculation the code describes - is spent determining what each "thing" is. It's all trails of calls trying to determine "this thing can't be __add__() to that thing but maybe that thing can be __radd()__ to this thing instead. Long way to say most of the time wasting instructions i see can be attacked by providing ctypes or some other approach like that (mypyc, maybe cython, etc etc) - but at this point you're well beyond "idiomatic".
[1] I'm really curious to know the answer to your question so i'll post a confident (but hopefully wrong) answer so that someone feels compelled to correct me :-)