Whereas "meta_eval('gcc', c_source)" also has the abstract idea of applying some function to interpret some input. What's the difference from just having a bunch of functions to do these things? Well, it seeks to unify the principle and identify an abstraction that can reasonably be implemented at each level in some form, whether it is a META_EVAL CPython byte code or in-lined machine code calling other machine code. I confess to a bit of handwaving, but if I hold back, there's no chance of making any contribution to early discussions. You can always ignore it if it doesn't fit into your views ;-)

In general I agree but why not an ABC instead of a dispatch function? Something like: class evaluator: """Interface for all evaluators""" def loadData(self): pass def compile(self): pass def evaluate(self): pass And then have subclasses add more specific load_ methods: i386 = I386evaluator() i386.loadInstruction('push ebp') i386.loadInstruction('mov ebp, esp') ... i386.compile() i386.evaluate() Where exec and eval would perform "if not compiled then compile; eval;" on any evaluator.