[summerofcode] stdlib port to python

[Niklaus Haldimann]

Hi Armin

Armin Rigo wrote:
> Ah, yes, it's a bit difficult to make estimates.  After some more
> consultations, it seems that 4 weeks would be realistic for a regular
> Python module.  Some more 1-2 weeks might be needed if you want to
> target PyPy's RPython, because some familiarity with it would be needed.
> The particular issue in this case is that the _sre module can work both
> on strings and unicode objects.  The _sre.c version does #include tricks
> to basically compile parts of itself twice, once for each type.  To get
> the same effects in RPython, some (probably different) tricks are needed
> too.  The 1-2 extra weeks would be to discuss and implement this kind of
> tricks.

I see. Thanks for your input. All I know about RPython comes from 
skimming the PyPy coding guide, so it's very likely that I don't 
understand all the issues around it. It didn't occur to me that the 
string/unicode dichotomy could be a problem, since I vaguely assumed a 
common superclass exists to which PyPy can apply its magic. ;)

I guess with these issues in mind, I will experiment with PyPy and 
RPython a bit more in the next days.

Cheers
Nik