First release of Shed Skin, a Python-to-C++ compiler.

[Mark Dufour]

>> After nine months of hard work, I am proud to introduce my baby to the
>> world: an experimental Python-to-C++ compiler. 
>Wow, looks really cool.  But why that instead of Pypy?

I agree with anyone that a JIT compiler that supports the full Python
semantics (which I thought to be the goal of PyPy?) is probably the
best long term solution. It will really be a lot of work, however, and
in general probably result in slower code than what my compiler
produces, when it works (because of run-time overheads, lack of global
optimizations.)

Considering that Shed Skin does what it does in only about 7500 lines
(5500 without C++ implementations of builtins), and is extreme in both
the requirements it puts on the compiler and in the speed of the
resulting code, for me personally it is just a very appealing
alternative to investigate (I like extremes :-)) It should work for
many programs of the type I usually write (algorithms, compilers..),
so it's also a case of scratching my own itch.


thanks!
mark.