What to do after Python?

[Alex Martelli]

"Fredrik Lundh" <fredrik at pythonware.com> wrote in message
news:fzik6.18639$AH6.2540196 at newsc.telia.net...
> Alex Martelli wrote:
> > > Which is ironic, since that's the best, most Standard compliant C++
> > > compiler for UNIX out there.  (It certainly has some problems, but
> > > they're all have workarounds and are being addressed in gcc 3.0.)
> >
> > I think KCC (KAI's compiler) is/was better (not sure about its status
> > now that Intel [?] has acquired it).
>
> footnote: KCC is just one of many compilers based on the EDG frontend
> (http://www.edg.com) -- which is definitely the best C++ frontend ever
> written.

Good point.  OTOH, KAI's own traditional strengths are/were entirely
in code generation and optimization -- they are/were the guys whose
Fortran source-to-source optimizing converter completely busted some
parts of the first-generation "SPEC" benchmarks.  Given that (just
about) the only sensible motivation for using C++ (or C or Fortran)
rather than higher-level languages is *PERFORMANCE*, optimization
issues would seem to be pretty germane.

The cheapest way to try out EDG's front-end is no doubt through
www.comeau.com -- they sell their C++-to-C translator, built with
EDG's front-end, for as low as $50 (not sure how the price varies
by platform &c -- $50 is what it would cost for Windows, or Linux
with an Intel CPU); apparently it now also supports C99 (not sure
how complete a subset); plus, a really cool marketing idea, one
can visit http://www.comeaucomputing.com/tryitout/ and enter some
(small but complete) C++ snippet for compilation (no execution, of
course, but you'll be able to see any message the compiler emits).

(It *would* be nice to have a similar arrangement for _Python_ on
some site or other, by the way... although, here, "just compiling"
might not be much use:-).


Alex