Python and Parrot

[A.M. Kuchling]

In article <3D316CCA.90605 at myrealbox.com>,
	Johann Höchtl wrote:
> Has the situation for Python changed since
> 
> http://groups.google.com/groups?q=parrot+group:comp.lang.python.*&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&scoring=d&selm=slrna8us88.ol4.akuchlin%40ute.mems-exchange.org&rnum=9
> 
> got posted?

No, nothing much has changed.  There's still no support for scoping,
still no compilers into Parrot bytecode except for toy demonstrations,
and the rate of development has either remained constant or slowed.
Premature optimization has continued, though, with patches to do
things like make stack operations faster; I don't know how someone
decided stack operations were a significant bottleneck without
actually being able to run real code on the VM.

I'll continue to keep an eye on Parrot development, and if someday
implementing Python semantics seems possible, I'll try to update the
Python-to-Parrot compiler.  My dream would be just a compiler that
handled simple functions and variables correctly; that would be enough
to run a subset of existing Python programs and compare the
performance of the Parrot and Python VMs.

--amk                                                             (www.amk.ca)
Choose your next words carefully, Doctor; they could be your last.
    -- The Borad, in "Timelash"