Is Python "Compiled"?

[Warren Postma]

"OpenMind" <**Mail Free America**> wrote in message
news:3a81ad07_3 at goliath2.newsfeeds.com...
> Recently started reading about Python.  The language looks very promising!
>
> I am confused, however, about the impressions I have received.   If I
write
> an application in Python, would it be distributed in the form of text
> modules?  Or would they be compiled into bytecode like Java and Visual
> Basic?

Yes you can distribute a text script, and yes you could distribute a pyc
file (similar to a java .class).  I think distributing the text script is
highly encouraged.

You can make an EXE also, but the EXE is generally just a container for
python bytecode, similar to a VB4 EXE.


> Too, is there a native-code compiler or front end available for Python
yet,
> something like the GNU C preprocessor I seem to recall?

Various efforts to build a Compiler are in "research stages".  Dynamic
languages don't respond well to attempts to compile them.   .  Nevertheless,
some very smart people seem to be trying.

Warren