Python vs. Lisp -- please explain

[Delaney, Timothy (Tim)]

Terry Reedy wrote:

>>> The the compiler is built into the VM as opposed to a separate tool
>>> (like Java) is just an implementation issue.

That was me, not Paul - careful with the attributions. Otherwise Paul
might think you were trying to ascribe some awful, inaccurate statement
to him ;)

> The presence of the exec statement and the eval function (which is
> used by the input statement) requires the runtime presence of the
> parser-compiler. Removing the latter disables the former features. 
> This is legitimite when not needed or when space is tight, but the
> result is no longer a full implementation.

True - but there's no reason that exec and eval couldn't hand off to a
python compiler to do the work. Failure to distribute the compiler would
mean then that exec and eval wouldn't work - but everything else would.

It's similar to why some projects need the JDK rather than the JRE -
they have to be able to compile things on the fly.

Tim Delaney