[Python-Dev] Internal representation of strings and Micropython

[Paul Sokolovsky]

Hello,

On Wed, 4 Jun 2014 11:25:51 -0700
Guido van Rossum <guido at python.org> wrote:

> This thread has devolved into a flame war. I think we should trust the
> Micropython implementers (whoever they are -- are they participating
> here?) 

I'm a regular contributor. I'm not sure if the author, Damien George,
is on the list. In either case, he's a nice guy who prefer to do
development rather than participate in flame wars ;-). And for the
record, all opinions expressed are solely mine, and not official
position of MicroPython project.

> to know their users and let them do what feels right to them.
> We should just ask them not to claim full compatibility with any
> particular Python version -- that seems the most contentious point.

"Full" compatibility is never claimed, and understanding it as such is
optimistic, "between the lines" reading of some users. All of:
announcement posted on python-list (which prompted current inflow of
MicroPython-related discussions), README at
https://github.com/micropython/micropython , and detailed differences
doc https://github.com/micropython/micropython/wiki/Differences make it
clear there's no talk about "full" compatibility, and only specific
compatibility (and incompatibility) points are claimed.

That said, and unlike previous attempts to develop a small Python
implementations (which of course existed), we're striving to be exactly
a Python language implementation, not a Python-like language
implementation. As there's no formal, implementation-independent
language spec, what constitutes a compatible language implementation is
subject to opinions, and we welcome and appreciate independent review,
like this thread did.

> Realistically, most Python code that works on Python 3.4 won't work
> on Micropython (for various reasons, not just the string behavior)
> and neither does it need to.

That's true. However, as was said, we're striving to provide a
compatible implementation, and compatibility claims must be validated.
While we have simple "in-house" testsuite, more serious compatibility
validation requires running a testsuite for reference implementation
(CPython), and that's gradually being approached.

> 
> -- 
> --Guido van Rossum (python.org/~guido)



-- 
Best regards,
 Paul                          mailto:pmiscml at gmail.com