Big problem: Confusing implementation with spec. One implementation should support BOTH [LWN.net]

Big problem: Confusing implementation with spec. One implementation should support BOTH

Posted Feb 10, 2011 18:53 UTC (Thu) by foom (subscriber, #14868)
In reply to: Big problem: Confusing implementation with spec. One implementation should support BOTH by zlynx
Parent article: Moving to Python 3

That won't help you at all when you want to use libraries. Having "import foo" work when you're writing in the Py3 dialect, and foo is written in the Py2 dialect would have been a major win.

(Log in to post comments)

Big problem: Confusing implementation with spec. One implementation should support BOTH

Posted Feb 10, 2011 19:56 UTC (Thu) by zlynx (subscriber, #2285) [Link]

Writing a giant combo cPython interpreter doesn't sound like a winner to me.

The solution might be to convert cPython into IronPython everywhere and compile Python to .NET / Mono IL. Then Python3 could call Python2 code in the same way that C#, F#, C++ and Visual Basic can all call each other.

Or to be more acceptable to anti-Microsoft people, use the Parrot virtual machine, if that ever becomes usable. Another option might be LLVM. A problem with LLVM is that it doesn't specify a reflection, object, function and data sharing scheme in the same way that .NET does. Java might be another virtual machine that could be made to work.