[Python-Dev] python compiler (original) (raw)

Craig Citro craigcitro at gmail.com
Mon Apr 5 17:31:54 CEST 2010

for a college project, I proposed to create a compiler for python. I've read something about it and maybe I saw that made a bad choice. I hear everyone's opinion respond.

I don't think everyone thinks this is a bad idea -- for instance, those of us working on Cython [1], which is itself a descendant of Pyrex [2]. :)

Python itself is a highly dynamic language and not amenable to direct compilation. Instead modern just-in-time compiler technology is seen as the way to improve Python performance. Projects that are doing this are PyPy and Unladen Swallow. A static subset of Python can be statically compiled, projects that do that include RPython (part of PyPy) and ShedSkin. These are not really Python though, just Python like languages that happen to be valid subsets of Python.

It's true that JIT compilation really opens up a whole world of possibilities that Cython currently can't touch. On the other hand, for some kinds of Python code -- especially, for example, things related to scientific computing or mathematics -- Cython's a quick road to massive speedups, because a little bit of static typing can go a long way. It's true that Cython doesn't yet support the full Python syntax, but this is considered a bug -- we're working hard on being able to compile all of Python soon.

-cc

[1] http://www.cython.org/

[2] http://www.cosc.canterbury.ac.nz/greg.ewing/python/Pyrex/

More information about the Python-Dev mailing list