RE: are we there yet?

["McLagan, Doug" <address@hidden>]

here's something:

yesterday i read a couple things about python, including a short article by
paul prescod and an interview with guido, here:

http://www.theperlreview.com/Issues/The_Perl_Review_0_2.pdf

the interview included the following:

Q: One of the things that distinguishes Python when compared to Perl is that
Python has been implemented multiple times: CPython, JPython/Jython,
Stackless Python, etc. Have multiple implementations of Python been a goal
for the Python language, or is it an interesting side effect of Python's
standard implementation? Where would you like these alternative
implementations to take Python?

A: These really are only two implementations, Jython and CPython: Stackless
is just an add-on for CPython. But there's a third implementation, Python
for .NET. There are also several projects aiming at translating Python to C
code, which will eventually become separate implementations in their own
right, with different semantics in corner cases.

[...]

I hope the alternatives take Python to places that CPython cannot reach.
Jython is an obvious example; the C translators will eventually break
through the speed barrier.

[end quote]

as a relative newbie coming into computer science through python, i'd like
to know what the C translators are about and what people think about the
idea.  will they (or one of them) speed up python considerably, and if so,
at what cost?

thanks, and i hope the board stays active.

- doug mclagan


Dorai Sitaram <ds26@gte.com> writes:

> Isn't anybody going to rage, rage against the
> dying of the lightweight language list?