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

[Jesse Noller]

On Sun, Mar 20, 2011 at 7:40 AM, Antoine Pitrou <solipsis at pitrou.net> wrote:
> On Sun, 20 Mar 2011 07:32:34 -0400
> Jesse Noller <jnoller at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> The reason why there was no mention is probably because no one
>> intimately familiar with Cython was there, and if they were - it was
>> not brought up. If Cython supports PyPy - and Jython, and IronPython,
>> your proposal makes sense. The reason for "pure" python implementation
>> is so that other implementations can share the exact same standard
>> library we have today.
>
> Well, realistically, they don't. Some functionality just isn't
> satisfied with a slow Python implementation. The io module is a primary
> example of that.
> (but I don't think a Cython version of io would be fast enough, either)
>
> Regards
>
> Antoine.

The intention (and pep that is in progress) is to break out the
standard library so that it *is* shared, and used by all of the
implementations. We should not go out of our way to make this
difficult, and provide pure python implementation whenever we can.
This was universally agreed to at the summit at least, and I believe
Brett Cannon is going to work on a pep that solidifies it.

The other implementations (PyPy, in particular) have run into serious
issues with the optimized C versions of modules being placed into the
core, and the Python fallbacks being torn out.

jesse