[OT] Compilable Python-like language?

[François Pinard]

[Carl Banks]

> I'm not against asking for more information to give a better answer,
> but just second guessing people and telling them they don't really
> want what they're asking for (which is the impression I got from
> Pinard's reply, whether he intended it or not) gets under my skin.

I also hate when people try to guess what I mean in a question, and
reply to their guess instead of replying to my question.  When they do
this, it may be an indication that my question was not clear enough
to start with, yet sometimes I honestly think that, despite my poor
knowledge of English, I was pretty clear.  So, I understand the feelings
you have, and would likely share them if the situation was similar.

Yet, I'm often surprised how susceptible people are, and how prone they
are to read intentions which are foreign to me.  Not so long ago, on
python-dev, I dared asking someone "Are you sure?" (I do not remember my
exact words) and he got incredibly offended, to my greatest surprise.
Such reactions always astonish me, especially given the good guy I know
I am! :-) In French (maybe in English too?) we say that we "put white
gloves" when we get extremely cautious about not offending someone, but
I would hope that here and everywhere, people would be more prone at
giving each other a positive prejudice about each other's intents.

Peter Hansen in this thread summarises my thoughts in better words
that I could find myself, and I'm grateful that he does.  The problem
I have with the question from the original poster is that there are
many possible packages that could help him, some of which I know, many
of which I do not.  On one hand, I could keep silent on the premise
I cannot give a full answer.  On the other hand, I could try to help
nevertheless if I am hinted that I can be helpful -- in this case, I did
not know, as "compiling to binary" was a bit meaningless as a goal in
itself.  The truth is that I do not like replying at random, when I feel
I'm a bit short on my own time, which alas, is often the case...

-- 
François Pinard   http://www.iro.umontreal.ca/~pinard