[OT] Compilable Python-like language?

[John Roth]

"Ed Cogburn" <edcogburn at hotpop.com> wrote in message
news:mailman.183.1079791608.742.python-list at python.org...
>
> I'm just curious if such a beast exists out there.  I've googled around
some
> and read some programming language websites but I have yet to find a
language
> similar to Python that can be compiled to binary.  Have I been looking in
the
> wrong places?  I certainly can't be the only person to want a Pythonish
> language that can be compiled.  Even a language that just uses Python's
basic
> syntax characteristics (no end-of-statement markers, use indentation to
denote
> code blocks, less verbose syntax overall, etc) without the advanced
dynamic
> and OO features would still be interesting to me (indeed, it would really
have
> to lose most of the dynamic characteristics in order to make it a
compilable
> language, which is why we don't have compile-to-binary Python, right?).
Is
> there such a thing?

Have you considered Java? [grin]

Actually, that's not a joke. I recently saw a blog entry from
someone who stripped off all of the unnecessary syntax (mostly
braces and semi-colons) from a Java program and presented the
results. It was amazingly readable! I suspect one could hack the Eclipse
editor to do this on the fly and convert back whenever the program
is stored.

Java doesn't, of course meet the criterion of being a compiled
language, but if readability is the major criterion (and it's
certainly one for me), then a hacked up open source editor with
a decent compiled language might be a solution.

John Roth


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