[Python-Dev] SoC AST generation question

[Brett Cannon]

On 3/19/07, Jay Parlar <parlar at gmail.com> wrote:
> I'm considering applying to be a student in this year's SoC, and the
> AST code generation in particular looks interesting to me (listed
> here: http://wiki.python.org/moin/CodingProjectIdeas/PythonCore).
>
> I was wondering a few things:
>
> 1) Who would most likely mentor this project?

There is no way of really telling.  It all depends on what projects
mentors get attracted to.

> 2) I've never worked in the core before (but have been using Python as
> my primary language for about 6 years), so I'm wondering if the
> potential mentor thinks it'd even be feasible for me to jump at a
> project like this without prior knowledge.
>

If you know C code you should be okay for the re-implementation of the
peephole optimizer to use the AST and the parse tree -> AST
auto-translation tool.  Core knowledge would help with the feature to
allow an AST to be passed in somewhere to generate bytecode.

But part of the point of GSoC is to teach people about the core, so
don't let lack of knowledge prevent you from applying.  Just take it
into account when writing up your propoosal.

-Brett