Python for Small Systems patch
Python for Small Systems is a minimal version of the python interpreter, intended to run on small embedded systems with a limited amount of memory. Since there is some interest in the newsgroup, we have decide to release an alpha version of the patch. You can download the patch from the following page: http://www.abo.fi/~iporres/python There is no documentation about the changes, but I guess that it is not so difficult to figure out what Raul has been doing. There are some simple examples in the Demo/hitachi directory. The configure scripts are broken. We plan to modify the configure scripts for cross-compilation. We are still testing, cleaning and trying to reduce the memory requirements of the patched interpreter. We also plan to write some documentation. Please send comments to Raul (rparra@abo.fi) or to me (iporres@abo.fi), Regards, Ivan -- Ivan Porres Paltor Turku Centre for Computer Science Åbo Akademi, Department of Computer Science Phone: +358-2-2154033 Lemminkäinengatan 14A FIN-20520 Turku - Finland http://www.abo.fi/~iporres
Ivan Porres Paltor wrote:
Python for Small Systems is a minimal version of the python interpreter, intended to run on small embedded systems with a limited amount of memory.
Since there is some interest in the newsgroup, we have decide to release an alpha version of the patch. You can download the patch from the following page:
http://www.abo.fi/~iporres/python
There is no documentation about the changes, but I guess that it is not so difficult to figure out what Raul has been doing.
Ivan, small Python is a very interesting thing, thanks for the preview. But, aren't 12600 lines of diff a little too much to call it "not difficult to figure out"? :-) The very last line was indeed helpful: +++ Pss/miniconfigure Tue Mar 16 16:59:42 1999 @@ -0,0 +1 @@ +./configure --prefix="/home/rparra/python/Python-1.5.1" --without-complex --without-float --without-long --without-file --without-libm --without-libc --without-fpectl --without-threads --without-dec-threads --with-libs= But I'd be interested in a brief list of which other features are out, and even more which structures were changed. Would that be possible? thanks - chris -- Christian Tismer :^) mailto:tismer@appliedbiometrics.com Applied Biometrics GmbH : Have a break! Take a ride on Python's Kaiserin-Augusta-Allee 101 : *Starship* http://starship.python.net 10553 Berlin : PGP key -> http://wwwkeys.pgp.net PGP Fingerprint E182 71C7 1A9D 66E9 9D15 D3CC D4D7 93E2 1FAE F6DF we're tired of banana software - shipped green, ripens at home
Christian Tismer wrote:
Ivan, small Python is a very interesting thing, thanks for the preview.
But, aren't 12600 lines of diff a little too much to call it "not difficult to figure out"? :-)
Raul Parra (rpb), the author of the patch, got the "source scissors" (#ifndef WITHOUT... #endif) and cut the interpreter until it fitted in a embedded system with some RAM, no keyboard, no screen and no OS. An example application can be a printer where the print jobs are python bytecompiled scripts (instead of postscript). We plan to write some documentation about the patch. Meanwhile, here are some of the changes: WITHOUT_PARSER, WITHOUT_COMPILER Defining WITHOUT_PARSER removes the parser. This has a lot of implications (no eval() !) but saves a lot of memory. The interpreter can only execute byte-compiled scripts, that is PyCodeObjects. Most embedded processors have poor floating point capabilities. (They can not compete with DSP's): WITHOUT-COMPLEX Removes support for complex numbers WITHOUT-LONG Removes long numbers WITHOUT-FLOAT Removes floating point numbers Dependences with the OS: WITHOUT-FILE Removes file objects. No file, no print, no input, no interactive prompt. This is not to bad in a device without hard disk, keyboard or screen... WITHOUT-GETPATH Removes dependencies with os path.(Probabily this change should be integrated with WITHOUT-FILE) These changes render most of the standard modules unusable. There are no fundamental changes on the interpter, just cut and cut.... Ivan -- Ivan Porres Paltor Turku Centre for Computer Science Åbo Akademi, Department of Computer Science Phone: +358-2-2154033 Lemminkäinengatan 14A FIN-20520 Turku - Finland http://www.abo.fi/~iporres
Ivan Porres Paltor wrote:
Christian Tismer wrote:
Ivan, small Python is a very interesting thing, thanks for the preview.
But, aren't 12600 lines of diff a little too much to call it "not difficult to figure out"? :-)
Raul Parra (rpb), the author of the patch, got the "source scissors" (#ifndef WITHOUT... #endif) and cut the interpreter until it fitted in a embedded system with some RAM, no keyboard, no screen and no OS. An example application can be a printer where the print jobs are python bytecompiled scripts (instead of postscript).
We plan to write some documentation about the patch. Meanwhile, here are some of the changes:
Many thanks, this is really interesting
These changes render most of the standard modules unusable. There are no fundamental changes on the interpter, just cut and cut....
I see. A last thing which I'm curious about is the executable size. If this can be compared to a Windows dll at all. Did you compile without the changes for your target as well? How is the ratio? The python15.dll file contains everything of core Python and is about 560 KB large. If your engine goes down to, say below 200 KB, this could be a great thing for embedding Python into other apps. ciao & thanks - chris -- Christian Tismer :^) mailto:tismer@appliedbiometrics.com Applied Biometrics GmbH : Have a break! Take a ride on Python's Kaiserin-Augusta-Allee 101 : *Starship* http://starship.python.net 10553 Berlin : PGP key -> http://wwwkeys.pgp.net PGP Fingerprint E182 71C7 1A9D 66E9 9D15 D3CC D4D7 93E2 1FAE F6DF we're tired of banana software - shipped green, ripens at home
participants (2)
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Christian Tismer -
Ivan Porres Paltor