[Python-Dev] Parrot -- should life imitate satire?

[Nathan Torkington]

Guido van Rossum writes:
> Yeah, but the runtime could offer a choice of data types -- for Python
> code the constants table would contain Python ints and strings etc., for
> Perl code it would contain Perl string-number objects.  Maybe.

A perl6 value have a vtable, essentially an array of function pointers
which comprises the standard operations on that value.  I talked to
Dan (the perl6 internals guy, dan@sidhe.org) about an impedence
mismatch between Perl and Python data types, and he pointed out that
you can have Perl values and Python values, each with their own
semantics, simply by having separate vtables (and thus separate
functions to implement the behaviour of those types).  Code can work
with either type because the type carries around (in its vtable) the
knowledge of how it should behave.

Feel free to grill Dan about these things if you want.

Nat