Python and the need for speed

[Steve D'Aprano]

On Sun, 16 Apr 2017 12:37 am, bartc wrote:

> What proportion of Python implementations depend on executing byte-code?

My guess is 100%.

Pretty much all modern interpreters of any language execute some form of
byte-code or another. The bad old days where interpreters repeatedly parsed
and executed each line of source are long gone.

PyPy generates some sort of byte-code, with a JIT compiler to generate
machine code on the fly for sufficiently "hot" code.

IronPython uses byte-code for the .Net virtual machine.

Jython uses byte-code for the Java virtual machine.

CPython uses byte-code for its own virtual machine.

There was a project for a Python interpreter for the Parrot VM, but I think
that's no longer in development.



-- 
Steve
“Cheer up,” they said, “things could be worse.” So I cheered up, and sure
enough, things got worse.