Cameron Laird's personal notes on varieties of Python implementation

Multiple implementations process the Python computer language. Those coming from Java, C, FORTRAN, and so on might find this unremarkable; it's a striking contrast, though, with Python's most immediate peers: Perl, Ruby, Tcl, ... Eventually I'll analyze the dynamics of this phenomenon. In the meantime, I intend to catalogue the diversity:

• "ActivePython is ActiveState's quality-assured binary build ..."
• "berp is an implementation of Python 3, written in Haskell."
• CPython is Guido van Rossum's reference Python [mention version prospects]
• deeply embedded python ...
• Diet Python
• Emscripten experimentally translates the C of CPython to JavaScript (to the unholy extent of supporting the ZODB Webscale Edition monstrosity)
• Enthought's "Enhanced Python" offers even more "batteries" than usual, including packages for GUI construction, scientific programming, persistence, visualization, and more.
• Pyrex ("It's not full Python but it's close", in the words of one colleague) is interesting enough to deserve an entire article of its own. I hope to write it in 2004 [also be aware of the related Cython]
• Neil Schemenauer's garbage-collected Python
• IronPython [explain; same Jim as with Jython; ...]
• Jython [explain; admiration for achievement of Jim Hugunin and Barry; performance possibilities]
• Movable Python
• Nuitka shocks me.
• Numba is important
• psyco and pyrex (and prothon?)
• "PyMite is a flyweight Python interpreter written from scratch to execute on 8-bit microcontrollers as well as desktop computers..."
• PyPy is really exciting ... [explain]
• Shed Skin is "an experimental Python-to-C++ compiler".
• Skulpt is an in-browser implementation. [So is Pyjamas.]
• SLOPPY
• I've organized a separate page for Stackless Python.
• John Max Skaller aims Vyper at ... [explain] [OCaML] I "It adds tail calls, list comprehensions, lexical scoping, full gc, and pattern matching to Python."
• Will Ware implements microthreads. After earlier independent experiments, he's now folded his efforts on top of Stackless. As of Leap Day 2000, task switching is not yet pre-emptive. Stackless 1.1 includes a per-thread scheduling hook that simplifies this fix. Warren Postma and other control programmers like the microthreads project for the constraints it should give on thread latency.
• As part of the .NET effort, Mark Hammond and colleagues have re-implemented Python in C#.
• [other]
• a separate but related topic is the gaggle of packages written for Python that implement DbC, multi-methods, functional programming, constraint-based programming, ...
• a special topic, of particular interest to me, is "slenderized" Pythons that fit in harsh environments, including
  • this FTP directory of generations for MS-DOS, OS/2, and so on;
  • Jean-Claude Wippler, Jeff Senn, Brian Lloyd and others have worked on tinyPython. One approach is to exploit "executable compressor" UPX: "This gets python15.dll down to 220K and seems to work for me";
  • [Explain Pyco and PythonD];
  • Pippy is Python for the Palm;
  • [museum]
• "ShedSkin is a Python -> C++ compiler (or translator) written in Python, created by Mark Dufour."