[pypy-dev] GSoC 2015: cpyext project?

[Maciej Fijalkowski]

On Fri, Nov 28, 2014 at 9:13 PM, Toby St Clere Smithe <mail at tsmithe.net> wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> I've posted a couple of times on here before: I maintain a Python
> extension for GPGPU linear algebra[1], but it uses boost.python. I do
> most of my scientific computing in Python, but often am forced to use
> CPython where I would prefer to use PyPy, largely because of the
> availability of extensions.
>
> I'm looking for an interesting Google Summer of Code project for next
> year, and would like to continue working on things that help make
> high-performance computing in Python straight-forward. In particular,
> I've had my eye on the 'optimising cpyext'[2] project for a while: might
> work in that area be available?
>
> I notice that it is described with difficulty 'hard', and so I'm keen to
> enquire early so that I can get up to speed before making a potential
> application in the spring. I would love to work on getting cpyext into a
> good enough shape that both Cython and Boost.Python extensions are
> functional with minimal effort on behalf of the user. Does anyone have
> any advice? Are there particular things I should familiarise myself
> with? I know there is the module/cpyext tree, but it is quite formidable
> for someone uninitiated!
>
> Of course, I recognise that cpyext is a much trickier proposition in
> comparison with things like cffi and cppyy. In particular, I'm very
> excited by cppyy and PyCling, but they seem quite bound up in CERN's
> ROOT infrastructure, which is a shame. But it's also clear that very
> many useful extensions currently use the CPython API, and so -- as I
> have often found -- the apparent relative immaturity of cpyext keeps
> people away from PyPy, which is also a shame!
>
> [1] https://pypi.python.org/pypi/pyviennacl
> [2] https://bitbucket.org/pypy/pypy/wiki/GSOC%202014
>
> Best,
>
> Toby
>

I'm not commenting on speeding up cpyext (I have a few ideas how to do that)

Unbounding cppyy from the CERN ROOT infrastructure sounds like a very
worthy goal. Does that sound exciting to you?