[Python-Dev] A new webpage promoting Compiler technology for CPython

[Paul Boddie]

Travis Oliphant wrote:
>
> With Numba and Blaze we have been doing a lot of work on what essentially
> is compiler technology and realizing more and more that we are treading on
> ground that has been plowed before with many other projects.   So, we
> wanted to create a web-site and perhaps even a mailing list or forum where
> people could coordinate and communicate about compiler projects, compiler
> tools, and ways to share efforts and ideas.
>
> The website is:  http://compilers.pydata.org/

This is a rather nice resource. Thank you for letting us know about it!

There has been an attempt to record different Python implementations on the 
Python Wiki, and now that this is available again, I'd like to remind people 
about it:

http://wiki.python.org/moin/PythonImplementations

I know that this isn't quite the same thing as a page about compiler 
technology, but there is a substantial overlap.

> This page is specifically for Compiler projects that either integrate with
> or work directly with the CPython run-time which is why PyPy is not
> presently listed.  The PyPy project is a great project but we just felt
> that we wanted to explicitly create a collection of links to compilation
> projects that are accessible from CPython which are likely less well known.

I think that given the scope of the projects listed, it shouldn't preclude 
PyPy from being listed, really. After all, interoperability with CPython 
extensions is something of a focus area for PyPy:

http://pypy.org/compat.html

I don't have an agenda here - I don't use PyPy actively, my only involvement 
with Shedskin (which is referenced and which can produce CPython extension 
modules) is in packaging it for Debian, and although I do have a static 
analysis library I see no pressing need to promote it extensively - but I 
feel that when it comes to educational resources people should be a bit 
careful about drawing boundaries that exclude things that would benefit 
people substantially if they only knew about it.

My reason for speaking up about this is that I've had to tell a room full of 
people who were told to use Cython, NumPy and even plain C to make their 
Python programs faster that PyPy existed. (Of course, one can justify 
ignoring the elephant in the room by claiming things like scientific users 
rely on native libraries or CPython extensions - since "science" is a very 
broad term, this obviously isn't universally true - but I think people should 
be entitled to make their own minds up, and I was not completely certain that 
everyone involved in the case in question was oblivious to PyPy's existence 
or status.)

> But that is just where we started from.   The website is intended to be a
> community website constructed from a github repository.   So, we welcome
> pull requests from anyone who would like to see the website updated to
> reflect their related project.    Jon Riehl (Mython, PyFront, ROFL, and
> many other interesting projects) and Stephen Diehl (Blaze) and I will be
> moderating the pull requests to begin with.   But, we welcome others with
> similar interests to participate in that effort of moderation.
>
> The github repository is here:  https://github.com/pydata/compilers-webpage
>
> This is intended to be a community website for information spreading, and
> so we welcome any and all contributions.

There is also the python-static-type-checking Google Group:

https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups#!forum/python-static-type-checking

If no-one beats me to it, I may post details of the site to that group because 
it may well be of interest to the members. Thanks once again for bringing 
such information together in one place!

Paul