Article on the future of Python

[Chris Angelico]

On Thu, Sep 27, 2012 at 10:44 AM, Steven D'Aprano
<steve+comp.lang.python at pearwood.info> wrote:
> PyPy is, well, PyPy is amazing, if you have the hardware to run it. It is
> an optimizing Python JIT compiler, and it can consistently demonstrate
> speeds of about 10 times the speed of CPython, which puts it in the same
> ballpark as native code generated by Java compilers. For some (admittedly
> artificially narrow) tasks it can beat optimized C code. It's fast enough
> for real time video processing, depending on the algorithm used.
>
> While PyPy is still a work in progress, and is not anywhere near as
> mature as (say) gcc or clang, it should be considered production-ready.

That's all very well, but unless I have my facts badly wrong, PyPy is
only compatible with Python 2 - right? I'd much rather have full
Unicode support etc etc etc than the coolness of
Python-implemented-in-Python, even with a significant performance
boost.

> I expect that, within the decade, PyPy will become "the" standard Python
> compiler and CPython will be relegated to "merely" the reference
> implementation.

Assuming it manages to catch up with Py3, which a decade makes
entirely possible, this I can well believe. And while we're sounding
all hopeful, maybe Python will be on popularity par with every other P
in the classic LAMP stack. *That* would be a Good Thing.

ChrisA