Merge branch 'fast_daemon' into develop

PERFORMANCE-NOTES

@@ -5,6 +5,9 @@ account in the code.
   or lists with tuple(), list().  Of those list is 10% faster than
   tuple.
 
+- however when not initializing from a generator, a fixed-length tuple
+  is at least 80% faster than a list.
+
 - an implicit default argument is ~5% faster than passing the default
   explicitly
 

server/block_processor.py

@@ -211,8 +211,8 @@ class MemPool(LoggedClass):
             return (script_hash168(txout.pk_script), txout.value)
 
         for hex_hash, tx in new_txs.items():
-            txout_pairs = tuple(txout_pair(txout) for txout in tx.outputs)
-            self.txs[hex_hash] = [None, txout_pairs, None]
+            txout_pairs = [txout_pair(txout) for txout in tx.outputs]
+            self.txs[hex_hash] = (None, txout_pairs, None)
 
         def txin_info(txin):
             hex_hash = hash_to_str(txin.prev_hash)
@@ -239,7 +239,7 @@ class MemPool(LoggedClass):
                 # If we were missing a UTXO for some reason drop this tx
                 del self.txs[hex_hash]
                 continue
-            self.txs[hex_hash] = [txin_pairs, txout_pairs, any(unconfs)]
+            self.txs[hex_hash] = (txin_pairs, txout_pairs, any(unconfs))
 
             # Update touched and self.hash168s for the new tx
             for hash168, value in txin_pairs:

server/daemon.py

@@ -48,9 +48,9 @@ class Daemon(util.LoggedClass):
             result = await resp.json()
 
         if isinstance(result, list):
-            errs = tuple(item['error'] for item in result)
+            errs = [item['error'] for item in result]
             if not any(errs):
-                return tuple(item['result'] for item in result)
+                return [item['result'] for item in result]
             if any(err.get('code') == self.WARMING_UP for err in errs if err):
                 raise DaemonWarmingUpError
             raise DaemonError(errs)
@@ -105,18 +105,14 @@ class Daemon(util.LoggedClass):
         return await self.send(payload)
 
     async def send_many(self, mp_iterable):
-        '''Send several requests at once.
-
-        The results are returned as a tuple.'''
-        payload = tuple({'method': m, 'params': p} for m, p in mp_iterable)
+        '''Send several requests at once.'''
+        payload = [{'method': m, 'params': p} for m, p in mp_iterable]
         if payload:
             return await self.send(payload)
-        return ()
+        return []
 
     async def send_vector(self, method, params_iterable):
-        '''Send several requests of the same method.
-
-        The results are returned as a tuple.'''
+        '''Send several requests of the same method.'''
         return await self.send_many((method, params)
                                     for params in params_iterable)
 
@@ -130,7 +126,7 @@ class Daemon(util.LoggedClass):
         params_iterable = ((h, False) for h in hex_hashes)
         blocks = await self.send_vector('getblock', params_iterable)
         # Convert hex string to bytes
-        return tuple(bytes.fromhex(block) for block in blocks)
+        return [bytes.fromhex(block) for block in blocks]
 
     async def mempool_hashes(self):
         '''Return the hashes of the txs in the daemon's mempool.'''
@@ -159,7 +155,7 @@ class Daemon(util.LoggedClass):
         params_iterable = ((hex_hash, 0) for hex_hash in hex_hashes)
         txs = await self.send_vector('getrawtransaction', params_iterable)
         # Convert hex strings to bytes
-        return tuple(bytes.fromhex(tx) for tx in txs)
+        return [bytes.fromhex(tx) for tx in txs]
 
     async def sendrawtransaction(self, params):
         '''Broadcast a transaction to the network.'''