[Python-Dev] Ph.D. dissertation ideas?

[Ian Bicking]

Brett Cannon wrote:
> Hmm.  It's an idea.  I also thought of Python -> JavaScript compiler
> since JavaScript is not fun and getting to test using Python might be
> cool.  But not sure how useful that would be.  Plus I bet someone has
> does this with Java or something.

There's a Python project that compiles to Javascript: 
http://www.aminus.org/blogs/index.php/phunt/2005/10/06/subway_s_new_ajax_framework

However, I think this is a bad idea.  The world doesn't need another 
compiled language with leaky abstractions that is next to impossible to 
debug.

Anyway, to chime in about something I'd really like to see, that maybe 
fits in somewhere between graphics and language implementation, is the 
ideas of Boxer (http://dewey.soe.berkeley.edu/boxer.html/) implemented 
for Python.  Basically meaning that some of what we represent with 
indentation in Python would be represented graphically (Boxer uses, 
unsurprisingly, boxes).  Also a kind of window in the runtime of the 
system -- variables in Boxer aren't names, but visual elements you can 
see as the program runs.  From what I've seen of HyperCard -- or at 
least what I choose to pay attention to ;) -- I think this kind of 
concrete runtime is part of its appeal.  I have a lot of more specific 
ideas related to this, if the idea interests you.

-- 
Ian Bicking  |  ianb at colorstudy.com  |  http://blog.ianbicking.org