Grant Edwards <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >> I've guessed that python is purely an interpreted language unless its >> compiled into another language (ie. it needs python installed in order >> to run programs). Is this correct? > > It's just like Java. It's compiled into bytecode and then the > bytecode is executed on a virtual machine.
Keep in mind that all modern JVMs "just-in-time" compile Java bytecode to native code. It looks something like this: Java source -> Java bytecode -> Java virtual machine -> Native code So, in the end, users are typically running natively compiled code. (Warning: This is a simplification, but this description seems adequate for the OP.) Java typically outperforms Python by a very wide margin. -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
