[Python-Dev] native code compiler? (or, OCaml vs. Python) (original) (raw)

Greg Ewing greg@cosc.canterbury.ac.nz
Thu, 30 Jan 2003 13:57:29 +1300 (NZDT)

Graham Guttocks:

I enjoy programming in Python and find it very productive. However, one glaring weakness is the absence of a high-performance native code compiler. Are there any plans to develop this?

This is asked fairly frequently, and the usual answer is "No, but you're welcome to volunteer." :-)

It would be much harder to do this for Python than OCaml, which is (I believe) statically typed. Python is so dynamic that you can hardly be sure of anything until runtime.

There are some projects attacking parts of the problem, however, e.g. Psyco.

By the way, Guido is probably going to tell you that python-dev is the wrong place to discuss this, since it's not directly about development of the Python interpreter/libraries.

Greg Ewing, Computer Science Dept, +--------------------------------------+ University of Canterbury, | A citizen of NewZealandCorp, a | Christchurch, New Zealand | wholly-owned subsidiary of USA Inc. | greg@cosc.canterbury.ac.nz +--------------------------------------+