Standardizing RPython - it's time.

[Stefan Behnel]

John Nagle, 11.10.2010 22:01:
>   It may be time to standardize "RPython".
>
> There are at least three implementations of "RPython" variants - PyPy,
> Shed Skin, and RPython for LLVM. The first two are up and running.

The thing is, while RPython can be seen as a general purpose programming 
language, it lacks much of what larger applications would need. It doesn't 
have access to the CPython ecosystem, for one. Not at all in the case of 
Shedskin, and only part of it in the case of PyPy (ironically, excluding 
mostly those parts that were written for high performance). Don't know 
about the LLVM implementation, which seems to be far from mature anyway.

If you implemented an RPython to CPython extension compiler, I'd expect 
that at least some people would use it. Lacking that, however, I don't see 
a major interest in writing code in RPython that doesn't have access to all 
of the CPython ecosystem. I'm not saying it can't be useful in certain 
cases, especially when you can be sure in advance that you won't need that 
ecosystem. But I don't really see the general purpose applicability of 
RPython to application development.

Stefan