c(++)python?

[Paul Jackson]

|> Why is the most popular implementation of python in C? A novice
|> programmer (like myself) might think:  "python is itself an
|> object-oriented language, so it would make sense to implement it in
|> another object-oriented language."
|> 
|> Is this in fact the case, or was c++ not standardized/mature enough
|> when python first came out?

Back around 1989, when Python started, C was far more
portable and well suited to serious internals work
than C++.  Perhaps the most widely used C++ compiler
of the time was cfront, which was a fancy frontend to
the C compiler.

Even today, C might be the implementation language
of choice for a Python-like language, because it is
well known, broadly implemented, suitable for code
that will run on even small platforms, and in the
right hands, delivers tight performance.

The "object-oriented" nature of Python, as a language,
has only modest impact on the choice of implementation
language.

<flagrant opinion>
C++ is big, too big for my tastes.
Translation:
    After several years of studying the language, and writing a
    couple of major applications in it, I still don't feel like
    I've mastered C++ .  Whereas I felt like I had seriously
    mastered C inside of one year of learning and use.
</flagrant opinion>
-- 
                          I won't rest till it's the best ...
                          Manager, Linux System Software
                          Paul Jackson <pj at sgi.com> 1.650.933.1373