[Python-Dev] VM and Language summit info for those not at Pycon (and those that are!) (original) (raw)

Guido van Rossum guido at python.org
Sun Mar 20 17:17:19 CET 2011

Hi Stefan,

I'm glad to see Cython picking up steam and trying to compete with CPython, PyPy, and possibly others. It's true that few in the core development group know much about Cython -- essentially my own understanding is still that it's like Pyrex, which was a mostly-Python-compatible syntax for writing C extensions, but certainly not able to compile all existing Python code successfully, due to small syntactic incompatibilities (e.g. new reserved words). I also thought that Cython was mostly popular is scientific computing circles. But I may well be wrong on all counts. Please enlighten me.

I'd like to hear more about Cython's compatibility -- e.g. does it compile Django? If so, is it any faster? What versions of Python does it currently support? How does it do on the benchmark suite used by PyPy (originated with Unladen Swallow)? IMO it's up to Cython to prove its worth.

-- --Guido van Rossum (python.org/~guido)

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