Why not a Python compiler?

[Steven D'Aprano]

On Tue, 05 Feb 2008 13:22:13 -0800, Ripter001 at gmail.com wrote:

> On Feb 5, 11:44 am, Steve Holden <st... at holdenweb.com> wrote:
>> Ripter... at gmail.com wrote:
>> >>  Why not a Python COMPILER?
>>
>> > What about a Python JIT hardware chip, so the CPU doesn't have to
>> > translate. Although it seems to me that with today's dual and quad
>> > core processors that this might be a mute point because you could
>> > just use one of the cores.
>>
>> What about a chip that reads your mind and does what you want it to?
>>
>> I am sure that would be popular with all the frustrated computer users
>> there are in the world.
>>
>> regards
>>   Steve
>> --
>> Steve Holden        +1 571 484 6266   +1 800 494 3119 Holden Web LLC   
>>           http://www.holdenweb.com/
> 
> I'm not sure where that came from. Microsoft had talked about a hardware
> JIT for .NET a few years back. I was just wondering if anyone had
> thought of it for python or anything like that.


Okay, you know how hard it is to create a software JIT compiler for a 
language as dynamic as Python? It's REALLY HARD, which is why it hasn't 
already been done[1]. Now you want that done in *hardware*, which is much 
harder. Who's going to spend the money on R&D?

I'm sure there are thousands of l33t hax0rs out there who have thought 
"Wouldn't it be c00l if there was a chip I could put into my PC to make 
Python run a million times faster!!!". When I was younger and more 
stupi^W innocent I had a mad fegairy for Forth and Lisp chips, but their 
lack of financial viability and their unfortunate habit of actually being 
*slower* than running the language in software put a big dent in the 
idea. As general purpose CPUs got faster, the idea of making a specialist 
language chip is now pretty much dead. Even if you could find a niche 
market prepared to pay for it, "people who run Python programs" is 
probably not that market.






[1] Apart from some specializing compilers like Pysco
http://psyco.sourceforge.net/introduction.html


-- 
Steven