On 6/4/2014 5:14 PM, Paul Sokolovsky wrote:
That said, and unlike previous attempts to develop a small Python implementations (which of course existed), we're striving to be exactly a Python language implementation, not a Python-like language implementation. As there's no formal, implementation-independent language spec, what constitutes a compatible language implementation is subject to opinions, and we welcome and appreciate independent review, like this thread did.
Realistically, most Python code that works on Python 3.4 won't work on Micropython (for various reasons, not just the string behavior) and neither does it need to.
That's true. However, as was said, we're striving to provide a compatible implementation, and compatibility claims must be validated. While we have simple "in-house" testsuite, more serious compatibility validation requires running a testsuite for reference implementation (CPython), and that's gradually being approached.
I would call what you are doing a 'Python 3.n subset, with limitations', where n should be a specific number, which I would urge should be at least 3, if not 4 ('yield from'). To me, that would mean that every Micropython program (that does not use a clearly non-Python addon like inline assembly) would run the same* on CPython 3.n. Conversely, a Python 3.n program should either run the same* on MicroPython as CPython, or raise. What most to avoid is giving different* answers. *'same' does not include timing differences or normal float variations or bug fixes in MicroPython not in CPython. As for unicode: I would see ascii-only (very limited codepoints) or bare utf-8 (limited speed == expanded time) as possibly fitting the definition above. Just be clear what the limitations are. And accept that there will be people who do not bother to read the limitations and then complain when they bang into them. PS. You do not seem to be aware of how well the current PEP393 implementation works. If you are going to write any more about it, I suggest you run Tools/Stringbench/stringbench.py for timings. -- Terry Jan Reedy