[Python-Dev] Pyston: a Python JIT on LLVM

[Kevin Modzelewski]

Hi all,

I'm excited to announce Pyston, a Python JIT under development at Dropbox,
built on top of LLVM.  You can read more about it at the introductory blog
post<https://tech.dropbox.com/2014/04/introducing-pyston-an-upcoming-jit-based-python-implementation/>,
or check out the code on github <https://github.com/dropbox/pyston>.

Since it's the question that I think most people will inevitably (and
rightly) ask, why do we think there's a place for Pyston when there's PyPy
and (previously) Unladen Swallow?

Compared to PyPy, Pyston makes a number of different technical choices,
such as using a method-at-a-time JIT vs PyPy's tracing JIT.  The
method-at-a-time approach seems to be being validated in the JavaScript
world, so there's reason to think there might be room to improve over PyPy,
though their extremely impressive performance makes that an admittedly
very, very high bar.  We also think that extension module support is a
first-class issue and have some ideas on how to try to make that fast.

As for Unladen Swallow, there are some reasons to think that LLVM has
matured greatly in the past few years, particularly in the JIT engine which
has been completely replaced.  I'm not sure if that's the only part to the
story; I'd be interested in talking with any of the people who were
involved or knowledgeable about the project.


It's definitely a very tall order to try to stand out among the existing
implementations, but in time we think we can do it.

I'll be at the language summit and PyCon sprints, and hope to see some of
you there!

kmod
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/attachments/20140403/b1bbc65f/attachment.html>