gh-116477: Improve performance of range for the single argument case

Misc/NEWS.d/next/Core and Builtins/2024-03-07-22-38-07.gh-issue-116477.AqwRAV.rst

@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+Speed up the :class:`range` object constructor in the case of a single argument.

Objects/rangeobject.c

@@ -240,6 +240,14 @@ compute_range_length(PyObject *start, PyObject *stop, PyObject *step)
     assert(PyLong_Check(stop));
     assert(PyLong_Check(step));
 
+    /* fast path for one argument case of range */
+    if (start == zero && step == one) {
+        if (_PyLong_IsPositive((const PyLongObject *)stop)) {
+            return Py_NewRef(stop);
+        }
+        return zero;
+    }
+
     /* fast path when all arguments fit into a long integer */
     long len = compute_range_length_long(start, stop, step);
     if (len >= 0) {