[Python-Dev] PEP 399: Pure Python/C Accelerator Module Compatibiilty Requirements

[Stefan Behnel]

R. David Murray, 18.04.2011 14:30:
> On Mon, 18 Apr 2011 09:36:20 +0100, Paul Moore wrote:
>> On 18 April 2011 08:05, Maciej Fijalkowski wrote:
>>> On Sun, Apr 17, 2011 at 4:19 AM, Raymond Hettinger wrote:
>>>
>>>> The PEP seems to be predicated on a notion that anything written in C is
>>>> bad and that all testing is good.
>>>
>>> Sounds about right
>>
>> I disagree. To me, a Python without libraries such as os, zlib,
>> zipfile, threading, etc wouldn't be much use (except in specialised
>> circumstances). OK, that means that alternative implementations need
>> to do extra work to implement equivalents in their own low-level
>> language, but so be it (sorry!)
>
> I think Maciej left out an "only" in that sentence.  If you say "only C",
> then the sentence makes sense, even when applied to modules that *can*
> only be written in C (for CPython).  That is, not having a Python version
> is bad.  Necessary in many cases (or not worth the cost, for external
> library wrappers), but wouldn't it be nicer if it wasn't necessary?

FWIW, there is a proposed GSoC project that aims to implement a Cython 
backend for PyPy, either using ctypes or PyPy's own FFI. That would 
basically remove the need to write library wrappers in C for both CPython 
and PyPy, and eventually for IronPython, which also has a Cython port in 
the making. Not sure how Jython fits into this, but I wouldn't object to 
someone writing a JNI backend either.

Stefan