GCJ equivalent for Python?

[Jp Calderone]

On Wed, 24 Nov 2004 11:16:56 -0800, Ed Suominen <ed-no at spam-eepatents.com> wrote:
>I have been programming Python for a year or so and like everything about it
> except for the difficulty of distributing programs to someone who doesn't
> have the 10MB+ interpreter package downloaded installed.
> 
> I'm a frequent user of pdftk, a Java-based PDF-manipulation program that
> runs natively (no JVM required) because it is compiled with gcj. It's
> plenty fast and you really never know that it was written in Java unless
> you try to build it.
> 
> So, the question naturally arises, why isn't there something like the gcj
> compiler for Python?

  Short answer: No real technical reason.  Motive, means, and opportunity simply haven't conspired on this front yet.

  The longer answer includes a list of projects that are similar to gcj, but for Python.  py2c is one old example (no longer maintained, I believe).  PyPy is headed towards native compilation (and can even do some simple things already).  And let's not forget Jython!  Just compile your Python to Java and your Java to assembly and your assembly to native code!

  Jp