diff -r 26e2ee402a0b Objects/dictnotes.txt
--- a/Objects/dictnotes.txt	Tue Jun 12 23:04:11 2012 +0200
+++ b/Objects/dictnotes.txt	Wed Jun 13 16:29:04 2012 +0100
@@ -70,42 +70,8 @@
 Tunable Dictionary Parameters
 -----------------------------
 
-* PyDict_STARTSIZE. Starting size of dict (unless an instance dict).
-    Currently set to 8. Must be a power of two.
-    New dicts have to zero-out every cell.
-    Increasing improves the sparseness of small dictionaries but costs
-    time to read in the additional cache lines if they are not already
-    in cache. That case is common when keyword arguments are passed.
-    Prior to version 3.3, PyDict_MINSIZE was used as the starting size
-    of a new dict.
-
-* PyDict_MINSIZE. Minimum size of a dict.
-    Currently set to 4 (to keep instance dicts small).
-    Must be a power of two. Prior to version 3.3, PyDict_MINSIZE was
-    set to 8.
-
-* USABLE_FRACTION. Maximum dictionary load in PyDict_SetItem.
-    Currently set to 2/3. Increasing this ratio makes dictionaries more
-    dense resulting in more collisions.  Decreasing it improves sparseness
-    at the expense of spreading entries over more cache lines and at the
-    cost of total memory consumed.
-
-* Growth rate upon hitting maximum load.  Currently set to *2.
-    Raising this to *4 results in half the number of resizes, less
-    effort to resize, better sparseness for some (but not all dict sizes),
-    and potentially doubles memory consumption depending on the size of
-    the dictionary.  Setting to *4 eliminates every other resize step.
-
-* Maximum sparseness (minimum dictionary load).  What percentage
-    of entries can be unused before the dictionary shrinks to
-    free up memory and speed up iteration?  (The current CPython
-    code does not represent this parameter directly.)
-
-* Shrinkage rate upon exceeding maximum sparseness.  The current
-    CPython code never even checks sparseness when deleting a
-    key.  When a new key is added, it resizes based on the number
-    of active keys, so that the addition may trigger shrinkage
-    rather than growth.
+See comments for PyDict_MINSIZE_SPLIT, PyDict_MINSIZE_COMBINED,
+USABLE_FRACTION and GROWTH_RATE in dictobject.c
 
 Tune-ups should be measured across a broad range of applications and
 use cases.  A change to any parameter will help in some situations and
diff -r 26e2ee402a0b Objects/dictobject.c
--- a/Objects/dictobject.c	Tue Jun 12 23:04:11 2012 +0200
+++ b/Objects/dictobject.c	Wed Jun 13 16:29:04 2012 +0100
@@ -270,7 +270,13 @@
 #define DK_MASK(dk) (((dk)->dk_size)-1)
 #define IS_POWER_OF_2(x) (((x) & (x-1)) == 0)
 
-/* USABLE_FRACTION must obey the following:
+/* USABLE_FRACTION is the maximum dictionary load.
+ * Currently set to (2n+1)/3. Increasing this ratio makes dictionaries more
+ * dense resulting in more collisions.  Decreasing it improves sparseness
+ * at the expense of spreading entries over more cache lines and at the
+ * cost of total memory consumed.
+ *
+ * USABLE_FRACTION must obey the following:
  *     (0 < USABLE_FRACTION(n) < n) for all n >= 2
  *
  * USABLE_FRACTION should be very quick to calculate.
@@ -290,6 +296,14 @@
  * #define USABLE_FRACTION(n) (((n) >> 1) + ((n) >> 2) - ((n) >> 3))
 */
 
+/* GROWTH_RATE. Growth rate upon hitting maximum load.  Currently set to *2.
+ * Raising this to *4 doubles memory consumption depending on the size of
+ * the dictionary, but results in half the number of resizes, less effort to
+ * resize and better sparseness for some (but not all dict sizes).
+ * Setting to *4 eliminates every other resize step.
+ * GROWTH_RATE was set to *4 up to version 3.2.
+ */
+#define GROWTH_RATE(x) ((x) * 2)
 
 #define ENSURE_ALLOWS_DELETIONS(d) \
     if ((d)->ma_keys->dk_lookup == lookdict_unicode_nodummy) { \
@@ -767,13 +781,7 @@
 static int
 insertion_resize(PyDictObject *mp)
 {
-    /*
-    * Double the size of the dict,
-    * Previous versions quadrupled size, but doing so may result in excessive
-    * memory use. Doubling keeps the number of resizes low without wasting
-    * too much memory.
-    */
-    return dictresize(mp, 2 * mp->ma_used);
+    return dictresize(mp, GROWTH_RATE(mp->ma_used));
 }
 
 /*