[IronPython] 2 Basic question about IronPython and dyn. langs in general

[Ben Hall]

I'll try to do my best to answer this.

1) Because a large is dynamically typed, doesn't mean you can't do any
verification on the code. Michael Foord told me about PyFlakes
(http://divmod.org/projects/pyflakes) and PyLint
(http://pypi.python.org/pypi/pylint) which can do static analysis on
the code to identity protential problems.

2) If by native code you mean something like C++, then I expect so.
Most languages are slower than C++,  and it comes down to CPU cycles
vs Developer Cycles. I'm sure developers are much more productive in
Python than C++.  Guess it depends on your application, but Python is
running on lots of high performance systems so I don't really think
its a problem.

3) Not sure if I understand your question. You can compile Python into
bytecode.  Compiled Python code are .pyc,

http://www.network-theory.co.uk/docs/pytut/CompiledPythonfiles.html

In 1.0, there was a sample of how to do this:
http://www.codeplex.com/Release/ProjectReleases.aspx?ProjectName=IronPython&ReleaseId=423

However, at the moment this is not supported in 2.0
(http://lists.whatwg.org/pipermail/users-ironpython.com/2008-February/006507.html)

Ben



On Wed, May 14, 2008 at 4:13 PM, Ben Aurel <ben.aurel at gmail.com> wrote:
> hi
> I have two questions on two different subject but anyhow connected. Also I
> have to admit that I could probably find the answers myself. But I'm quite
> new to all that things and I have a lot to catch up to...
>
> If I understand correctly the are 2 main advantages when it comes to dynamic
> languages:
> + Objects doesn't have to be typed be the developer
>   (saves time, makes code shorter and better readable code)
> + Code is interpreted
>   (no compilation step during development, source dont have to be compiled
> for the target machines before deployment)
>
> which implies the 2 following disadvantages
> - Writing a lot of tests to catch potential runtime errors (no compile time)
> - Slower than native code
>
> Questions:
>
> 1. Why belong the terms "untyped" and "interpreted" somehow together? Why
> can't the type inference that has to be done at runtime  not be done at
> compiletime. I think the runtime interpreter has to compile the python
> bytecode to native code somehow - no?
> Why isn't there a possibility to *compile* python/ruby/perl/... code to
> native code at the first place?
>
> 2. I've read about, that it is possible to compile Python Code to msil with
> IronPython. Unfortunately I'm not yet at the point where this run on my
> machine (macosx). So I do have to ask you: Is such a dll/exe the same as I
> would compile it from c#? Does similar language constructs (eg. for loop,
> class object creation) the same performance?
>
> Thanks in advance.
> Ben
>
>
>
> One of the list members - Ben Hall - pointed me at one of his blog posts
> [1].
>
>
>
>
>
> http://blog.benhall.me.uk/2008/05/ironpython-classes-within-separate.html
>
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