Python questions -> compiler and datatypes etc

[Paul Rubin]

Cliff Wells <logiplexsoftware at earthlink.net> writes:
> > The lack of a Python
> > compiler just isn't seen as an urgent problem right now.  Most users
> > are content to leave Python implementation to the central Python
> > developers, and the central developers are mostly concentrating on
> > interpreted implementations.  And Python has a useable-enough
> > native-code interface that bottlenecks in Python programs can usually
> > be relieved by converting the critical parts to a C module.  That
> > relieves a lot of the tension.  A Python compiler would be nice to
> > have, but I can think of lots of things that are more important.
> 
> Especially since faster hardware has removed a lot of the urgency for 
> generating native machine code.  

Also, people are accustomed to not trying to use Python in
applications they think of as resource-intensive.  Nobody currently
tries to write production compilers, operating systems, window
systems, databases, etc. in Python, while all those things have been
done in Lisp.  

The Specializing Compiler stuff is pretty interesting but to be fully
compiled, I think the language will have to evolve somewhat, just as
Lisp did.  That's a fairly natural development and I think it will
happen with passing time.