Tiny/small/minimalist Python?

[rtk]

On Jul 2, 9:43 am, Paul Rubin <http://phr...@NOSPAM.invalid> wrote:
> rtk <oneelkr... at hotmail.com> writes:
> > FYI.. I wanted a simple version of Python to run on an ancient DEC
> > Alpha box.  I got VMS Python 2.5 up and running but it is too slow to
> > use.  It takes *minutes* to get the interpreter prompt after typing
> > 'python'!
>
> Something is wrong.  Maybe it's trying to DNS itself and timing out,
> or something like that.

The trouble is that the Alpha is too old.  VMS Python is compiled for
a newer machine with a different instruction set and the Alpha is
emulating the machine instructions it does not have (a nice feature of
OpenVMS, but of dubious value).

For my needs, the effort of recompiling all of Python wasn't worth
it.  Since Lua runs under Unix it will be perfect for my project.  I'm
writing a compiler for a simple language to 6502 assembly code.  I've
already written one in Python for small PIC microcontrollers (see PIC0
at http://www.geocities.com/oneelkruns/) and was planning on using
Python for this compiler project as well but it will be fun to use
something new, too.  I am thinking of doing most of the development in
OpenVMS, just for the heck of it.

Ron