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Re: So, what the heck is a continuation anyway?
>>>>> "SAJ" == S Alexander Jacobson <alex@shop.com> writes:
SAJ> Also, for python at least, a translation to scheme does indeed
SAJ> seem relatively straightforward.
Indeed it seems like an attractive project!
Python has had a single canonical implemenation for most of its
existence. Jython (formerly know as JPython) changed that a few years
ago, but we haven't seen any other serious attempts at implementation.
The current implementation has a C API that is important -- for
extending Python with new modules written in C and for embedding in
larger C applications. I don't see a practical way to preserve those
APIs *and* use Scheme as the backend for Python.
On the other hand, an implementation that did not provide
compatibility at the C API and only ran 100% pure Python would be
useful if it offered significantly improved performance. Can a Scheme
compiler deliver that? Perhaps. I'd love to see someone try.
On the third hand, I expect that achieving really good performance
requires somes runtime specialization in the style of Self. I am not
sure if a what the cost of genering machine code from Scheme from
Python at runtime would be. Could Proto be implemented with Scheme as
the backend?
Jeremy