Python bytecode compatibility between interpreter versions

[Jon Perez]

Skip Montanaro wrote:

> As I mentioned in my previous post, the distiction between the Java VM and
> the Python VM is that the former is delivered separate from the compiler and
> other tools, while the latter is delivered afresh with each Python
> distribution.  

Actually, Sun always bundles Hotspot and javac together in an SDK release.
But yes, you _can_ get and use a compiler separately (Jikes, for example)
from the JVM and there is very little version dependency between the two
(the JVM has stayed the same for a long time now).


> Guido would be free to eliminate the Python VM from the next
> version of Python and instead directly interpret the abstract syntax tree
> emitted by the compiler.  

eh...?  If interpreting the AST isn't what the CPython VM does, then what
does it do?


 > PyChecker and other tools which operate directly with the bytecode would
 > break, but Python applications should still work.

Does this mean that you will need a different version of PyChecker for each
Python .x release?