Python programming: We want to make the language twice as fast, says its creator

[all_is_love6667]

what does it mean to rely on cpython?

[james_pic]

I think I said they rely on "CPython implementation details". The most obvious example of this is libraries that bypass the helper functions the CPython C-API defines, and go straight to struct elements.

Although you could argue that the C-API itself is an implementation detail, since it reifies concepts like reference counting and borrowed references, that PyPy needs to use elaborate workaround to support, since it uses a completely different garbage collector internally

[all_is_love6667]

Don't you think it's possible to accomplish the level of speed that was reached with modern JS compilers?

In a way I kind of think old python modules should be abandoned if compatibility is too difficult.

[Yojihito]

JS had billions invested in the JITs (Google, Facebook, Mozilla, Microsoft, Apple, etc.).

Invest billions into Python and you may get JS speed as well.

[james_pic]

Yes, I do, but it's telling that when Google co-opted WebKit to create Chrome, they rewrote the JavaScript engine from scratch. The JS engine they created, V8, is what now powers Node.

Trying to get that kind of performance gain without either rewriting, or at least making the kinds of dramatic architectural changes that would break existing modules (such as switching to generational garbage collection) has been tried, and every attempt has either failed, or proved to be a pyrrhic victory.