(slightly OT): Python and linux - very cool

[Michael Hudson]

Mart van de Wege <mvdwege.usenet at drebbelstraat20.dyndns.org> writes:

> Sorry if I'm mistaken, but I thought that the Java VM was a complete
> virtual processor, whereas Python (just as Perl) merely generates a
> parse tree on compiling the code.

This is inaccurate, at best.

> If the Python VM is however a full Virtual Machine, then I apologise,
> because it appears my knowledge is out of date.

I'm not sure what "full Virtual Machine" means.  Python compiles to a
fairly high level byte code (e.g. "a.b" compiles roughly to

   LOAD_FAST a
   LOAD_ATTR b

-- the vm is stack based).

And this has been the case in Python for, more-or-less, ever.  If
you're knowledge is out of date, then you must have known Python circa
version 0.9 (and I don't know if that interpreted a parse tree -- I
just know it was different).

Cheers,
M.

-- 
  I wouldn't trust the Anglo-Saxons for much anything else.  Given
  they way English is spelled, who could trust them on _anything_ that
  had to do with writing things down, anyway?
                                        -- Erik Naggum, comp.lang.lisp