Python Front-end to GCC

[sharath.cs.smp at gmail.com]

On Sunday, 20 October 2013 10:56:46 UTC-7, Philip Herron  wrote:
> Hey,
> 
> 
> 
> I've been working on GCCPY since roughly november 2009 at least in its
> 
> concept. It was announced as a Gsoc 2010 project and also a Gsoc 2011
> 
> project. I was mentored by Ian Taylor who has been an extremely big
> 
> influence on my software development carrer.
> 
> 
> 
> Gccpy is an Ahead of time implementation of Python ontop of GCC. So it
> 
> works as you would expect with a traditional compiler such as GCC to
> 
> compile C code. Or G++ to compile C++ etc.
> 
> 
> 
> Whats interesting and deserves a significant mention is my work is
> 
> heavily inspired by Paul Biggar's phd thesis on optimizing dynamic
> 
> languages and his work on PHC a ahead of time php compiler. I've had
> 
> so many ups and down in this project and i need to thank Andi Hellmund
> 
> for his contributions to the project.
> 
> http://paulbiggar.com/research/#phd-dissertation
> 
> 
> 
> The project has taken so many years as an in my spare time project to
> 
> get to this point. I for example its taken me so long simply to
> 
> understand a stabilise the core fundamentals for the compiler and how
> 
> it could all work.
> 
> 
> 
> The release can be found here. I will probably rename the tag to the
> 
> milestone (lucy) later on.
> 
> https://github.com/redbrain/gccpy/releases/tag/v0.1-24
> 
> (Lucy is our dog btw, German Shepard (6 years young) loves to lick
> 
> your face off :) )
> 
> 
> 
> Documentation can be found http://gcc.gnu.org/wiki/PythonFrontEnd.
> 
> (Although this is sparse partialy on purpose since i do not wan't
> 
> people thinking this is by any means ready to compile real python
> 
> applications)
> 
> 
> 
> I've found some good success with this project in compiling python
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> though its largely unknown to the world simply because i am nervous of
> 
> the compiler and more specifically the python compiler world.
> 
> 
> 
> But at least to me there is at least to me an un-answered question in
> 
> current compiler implementations.  AOT vs Jit.
> 
> 
> 
> Is a jit implementation of a language (not just python) better than
> 
> traditional ahead of time compilation.
> 
> 
> 
> What i can say is ahead of time at least strips out the crap needed
> 
> for the users code to be run. As in people are forgetting the basics
> 
> of how a computer works in my opinion when it comes to making code run
> 
> faster. Simply need to reduce the number of instructions that need to
> 
> be executed in order to preform what needs to be done. Its not about
> 
> Jit and bla bla keyword llvm keyword instruction scheduling keyword
> 
> bla.
> 
> 
> 
> I could go into the arguments but i feel i should let the project
> 
> speak for itself its very immature so you really cant compare it to
> 
> anything like it but it does compile little bits and bobs fairly well
> 
> but there is much more work needed.
> 
> 
> 
> There is nothing at steak, its simply an idea provoked from a great
> 
> phd thesis and i want to see how it would work out. I don't get funded
> 
> of paid. I love working on compilers and languages but i don't have a
> 
> day job doing it so its my little pet to open source i believe its at
> 
> least worth some research.
> 
> 
> 
> I would really like to hear the feedback good and bad. I can't
> 
> describe how much work i've put into this and how much persistence
> 
> I've had to have in light of recent reddit threads talking about my
> 
> project.
> 
> 
> 
> I have so many people to thank to get to this point! Namely Ian
> 
> Taylor, Paul Biggar, Andi Hellmund, Cyril Roelandt  Robert Bradshaw,
> 
> PyBelfast, and the Linux Outlaws community. I really couldn't have got
> 
> to this point in my life without the help of these people!
> 
> 
> 
> Thanks!
> 
> 
> 
> --Phil