[Python-Dev] native code compiler? (or, OCaml vs. Python)

[Greg Ewing]

Graham Guttocks:

> I enjoy programming in Python and find it very productive. However,
> one glaring weakness is the absence of a high-performance native code
> compiler. Are there any plans to develop this?

This is asked fairly frequently, and the usual answer
is "No, but you're welcome to volunteer." :-)

It would be much harder to do this for Python than
OCaml, which is (I believe) statically typed. Python
is so dynamic that you can hardly be sure of *anything*
until runtime.

There are some projects attacking parts of the problem,
however, e.g. Psyco.

By the way, Guido is probably going to tell you that
python-dev is the wrong place to discuss this, since
it's not directly about development of the Python
interpreter/libraries.

Greg Ewing, Computer Science Dept, +--------------------------------------+
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