malv: >Hi bearophileH,
bearophile is enough :-) >Could you post some more information about ShedSkink? ShedSkin (SS) is a Python -> C++ compiler (or translator) written in Python, created by Mark Dufour. Its development was initially "financed" by the summer of code by Google. It contains some smart algorithms that allow it to infer the type of most variables, and to compile everything statically (but with a garbage collector). This produces a very fast executable, usually like a C++ one. SS has some limits, some of them are temporary, and some of them are here to stay (it cannot be used on really dynamic stuff). It's not intended to compile every Python program, but mostly for "algorithmic" code that has to go fast, often the same code Psyco is used for. It can be seen as complementary to Psyco, and not really like something to substitute it, Psyco is a very good software. I am helping Mark as I can, in different ways, because I think SS is a very interesting software. At the moment SS is in the Alpha stage still, this means: - It has a lot of bugs still, but Mark fixes some of them almost every week. That problem in that fannkuch code is relative to the version 0.0.5, a successive version may compile it correctly. - Some common things aren't possible yet, like inheritance, but Mark is probably going to implement this in the following days. - The code produced is C++, and it calls functions of the SS library. CPython source code contains some very fast routines (by Raymond Hettinger and other people), so sometimes CPython is faster (example: sometimes Python dicts are faster). This is mostly a "tuning/implementation" problem, it's not a limit of SS or the C++ and its compiler. It's a matter of knowing lot of complex C++ "tricks" and implementing/copying faster routines. Another developer can probably help Mark improve most of those algorithms (I think that sometimes the CPython source code itself may be adapted and used). - If another developer helps Mark, a future version of SS can probably be used to automatically produce compiled modules that can be imported into normal Python programs (it may call something like SIP/SWIG by itself), a very simple single-click command can be used (on Windows in a contex menu). The info about the input types of the functions/methods may be expressed with some very simple syntax inside the module docstring, or simply it may be contained in the part of the module that isn't executed when then module is called. - There are lot of ways to improve SS still, some people in the Blender group have already shown interest in SS, but it contains too much bugs still to be used in serious projects. Helping hands can speed up its development a lot. The project on Sourceforge, it contains more information and documentation: http://sourceforge.net/projects/shedskin/ SS blog: http://shed-skin.blogspot.com/ The last version is 0.0.5.1, it contains an important memory bugfix and other minor bugfixings. Some timings for version 0.0.5: http://sourceforge.net/mailarchive/forum.php?thread_id=9040577&forum_id=46397 (small_dict_fp test is probably faster in version 0.0.5.1). Bear hugs, bearophile -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
