[pypy-dev] Objective of minimal python

[Delaney, Timothy]

> From: Armin Rigo [mailto:arigo at tunes.org]
> 
> On Mon, Jan 20, 2003 at 12:51:00PM -0600, Nathan Heagy wrote:
> > This might be as good a point as any to jump in with my 
> question: is 
> > there planned support for non-x86 platforms?
> 
> Yes, I expect the new Psyco-like code to be much more 
> flexible and easy to
> port to other processors.  We are also talking about mixed approaches
> involving gcc.

I would think that there should be multiple possible targets from psyco
depending on the platform.

1. By default the output format is python bytecode.

2. Optionally, C source code could be output and compiled on-the-fly (this
would really need a persistent cache to avoid the big hit).

3. For specific platforms, machine code could be output directly.

4. Finally, Python source code which matches the C code that *would* have
been produced in (2) as a reference.

I would think (1) and (2) would be the first to be implemented.

At this point, I don't consider performance to be *any* kind of objective.
Getting a working version on one platform, then a working version on all
platforms are the first steps.

Tim Delaney