[Python-Dev] VM and Language summit info for those not at Pycon (and those that are!)

[Guido van Rossum]

Hi Stefan,

I'm glad to see Cython picking up steam and trying to compete with
CPython, PyPy, and possibly others. It's true that few in the core
development group know much about Cython -- essentially my own
understanding is still that it's like Pyrex, which was a
mostly-Python-compatible syntax for writing C extensions, but
certainly not able to compile all existing Python code successfully,
due to small syntactic incompatibilities (e.g. new reserved words). I
also thought that Cython was mostly popular is scientific computing
circles. But I may well be wrong on all counts. Please enlighten me.

I'd like to hear more about Cython's compatibility -- e.g. does it
compile Django? If so, is it any faster? What versions of Python does
it currently support? How does it do on the benchmark suite used by
PyPy (originated with Unladen Swallow)? IMO it's up to Cython to prove
its worth.

-- 
--Guido van Rossum (python.org/~guido)