Python vs. Lisp -- please explain

[Delaney, Timothy (Tim)]

Donn Cave wrote:

> for very long.  If you give me a Python program, you have 3 choices: 
> cross your fingers and hope that I have the required Python
> interpreter version, slip in a 25Mb Python interpreter install and
> hope I won't notice, or come clean and tell me that your program
> needs an interpreter and I should check to see that I have it.

Or use the correct term - a Python Virtual Machine.

The the compiler is built into the VM as opposed to a separate tool
(like Java) is just an implementation issue. There's nothing stopping
you from compiling Python source offline and just distributing the
bytecode (and this is commonly done) - although in that case you are
usually tied to a specific PVM major version.

Tim Delaney