These things still need attention:

 * The hotbuf branch will be completed after the sprint.  I want to implement common parsing patterns (line delimited, netstrings) in C (MartinBlais).
 * The patch implementing optimizing out "if 0" still needs review.
 * Andrew Dalke has experimented with optimizing some common cases in argument parsing, which looks very promising, but needs further attention.
 * Internal string->object parsing routines (int(), float(), etc) need a way to bound the portion of the string they'll look at.  This is partly bugfix, since passing a buffer object to such a Python-level routine results in anything from nonsense to segfaults now.
 * Tim intends to continue work on the `tim-exc_sanity` branch.
 * Fredrik intends to continue work on stringlib refactoring.
 * Ran out of time before getting to most of the "speed function calls" patches.  Since any speedup in that area would benefit almost all users,  they're still well worth pursuing.
 * Look at Kristján's ideas for speeding up lookdict_string.  I've played with dummy optimization and inline string compare on my machine, which gives a small but noticable speedup.  IIRC, the original patch contained a few more tweaks - FL

 * Any branches that are not intended to continue work should be removed before leaving the sprint. '''DONE''' - TP
 * Coverity's overnight (Saturday/Sunday) run shows a few new `NULL` complaints; need to investigate. '''DONE''' - TP
 * Many tests are showing refcount leaks as of Saturday; Tim suspects the new exception code. '''DONE'''


== Lessons Learned ==

=== Visual Studio / Code Coverage Tools ===

If anyone uses Windows and is planning to use C code coverage tools to possibly look at improving the test suite, or perhaps for profiling, they might want to obtain them well in advance of a sprint.

I was unable to locate any free tools which worked with Visual Studio, and any commercial ones which even vaguely claimed to do so generally required an indefinite delay after submitting a marketing related form before you could access a downloadable trial version.  Perhaps instead of applying for a trial version, it might be worthwhile to apply for a free license for Python development.

Here are the code coverage capable tools which I tried to obtain and use, and short notes about them:

 * [[http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/teamsystem/default.aspx|Visual Studio Team System]]

   This cannot be downloaded, but a 180 day trial can be obtained on request mailed out on DVD.  CCP had a license for it already, but strangely only had beta 2 versions which had expired and was not able to locate a final version in time despite being entitled to one.

 * [[http://www.compuware.com/products/devpartner/studio.htm|DevPartner Studio]]

   This requires an application for a trial version and an indefinite delay before the marketing department get back to you, by phone I believe!  It is possible to locate binaries on file sharing services, which can be installed in a trial mode, but they were unusable in our experience.  An older version, 7.00, required VS .NET at the latest, and I was unable to get it to work at a command line level with later versions.  The more recent version 8.00, worked with VS 2005, but when a build was made with profiling instrumentation, their compiler crashed repeatedly.  Version 8.00 also does not support x64 based versions of Windows.

 * [[http://www-306.ibm.com/software/awdtools/purifyplus|Rational Purify]]

   This appears to be the one commercial tool which offers a downloadable trial version and does not require indefinite marketing department hoops to be jumped.  However, I was completely unable to create an account on IBM's web site, due to vague complaints about unsuitable user names and passwords.  I suspect that this is a problem which others can get around, because of better guesses at suitable entries for these fields.

Here is another possibility, which I did not know about at the sprint:

 * [[http://www.bullseye.com|Bullseye Coverage]]

   Does not have a downloadable trial, but I believe one can be obtained after the marketing department receive your submitted application.