Python Popularity: Questions and Comments

[Ron Stephens]

You are probably aware of the Stackless Python project, I don't know off hand
where its web site is, and it's not a compiler I don't think, but a different
implementation of a Python interpreter that is a little faster in program
execution (a lot faster ??).
 I know it's not what you are after exactly, but I guess if you want speed of
execution, it could be of interest.

I bet someday someone or some group creates an "optimized" compiler for Python,
but I hear it would be an enormously difficult and complex job. My guess is
that, if Python becomes popular *enough*, then someone will find the difficulty
worth tackling.

On another related tangent, I hope someday someone makes a .Net implementation
of Python. Mark Hammond, who was I think involved in ActiveState's prototype
effort to do just that, has stated how difficult a job it is. But again, if
Python becomes popular enough then someone may do it.

One last aside, I keep seeing news about Mono, there was a nice
interview/article in, I think Linux Journal recently by Miguel de Icaza (sp?)
and it sounds like they are making real progress. I wonder, would a Python.Mono
be just as difficult as a Python.net (I guess it would). Would a Python.mono and
a Python.net be do-able as a joint project?

Wouldn't a Python.Mono be nice ;-))))

Ron Stephens