Can I compile Python for the web?

[Peter Hansen]

Charles wrote:
> I'm doing some investigations on the Python language.
> I'd like to know if it is possible to compile Python code made for the 
> web  (an online database for instance), and to run it using mod_python. 
> How is  it possible? I think it would be very fast to execute the code 
> if it were  compiled.

Python code is already compiled, specifically to .pyc files, though this 
is clearly not what you meant by the above.  (The .pyc files contain 
"bytecode" which is executed by the Python virtual machine, much like a 
CPU executes its native opcodes, or like Java executes its own bytecode 
instructions.)

What you appear to be asking is if it's possible to create *native 
machine code* from Python source in order to achieve a significant 
increase in performance.  The short answer is "no, not really", and 
longer answers include "yes, sort of, using something like Psyco", and 
"who cares because it wouldn't give you much better performance for a 
web-based application where you're probably either I/O-bound or limited 
by the speed of the non-Python database solution you are using in the 
first place?".

-Peter