
Why hasn't PyPy been merged into the Python trunk? - ivoflipse
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/12867263/why-hasnt-pypy-been-merged-into-the-python-trunk
======
axiak
To me, what makes CPython special is that it's a language interpreter that's
incredibly easy to get into and hack due to its simplicity. Pypy, while
probably a good standard for server use, will never have that quality to it.
IMHO it would be a shame if python loses this aspect of the ecosystem.

~~~
omaranto
I haven't looked at the source for either but shouldn't PyPy's interpreter be
easier to mess around with because it's written in Python (with some hints for
the JIT)? Probably the thing that turns the interpreter into a JIT compiler is
more sophisticated, but if you want to modify Python you wouldn't be looking
at that part.

~~~
axiak
Watch this for a great presentation discussing this:
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_HBRhcgeuQ>

Not that they haven't gotten better. My point is that CPython has a different
set of goals which makes it great for a reference implementation.

~~~
winter_blue
I might be sounding a bit futuristic, but I think reference implementations
should be auto-generated from a "spec" lang.

I don't know if a language for doing something like that even exists. Does
anyone know of something like this?

EDIT: I should clarify: a spec should be _high-level_, i.e. abstract away all
the unimportant details. Perhaps unit tests would be better in this case. Perl
6 follows this model.

But it would be even better if one could some how "fill in the details" of the
specs separately, from the spec, rather than mesh the whole thing into one
giant C puddle.

------
stefantalpalaru
PyPy doesn't support Python's C API. It's more of an exercise in tracing JIT
compilation (and crowdfunding various experiments) rather than a CPython
replacement.

~~~
fox91
Not true. It supports CPython C modules since 2010
[http://morepypy.blogspot.it/2010/04/using-cpython-
extension-...](http://morepypy.blogspot.it/2010/04/using-cpython-extension-
modules-with.html) The problem is CPyExt is not so fast and works only if PyPy
implements the required functions used by the C module

~~~
DasIch
A lot of C modules rely on CPython specifics, PyPy cannot support, performance
of the PyPy C API is horrible which is a huge problem given that C extensions
are mainly used to improve performance and embedding PyPy isn't possible
either.

CPyExt is more of a hack you use until you have ctypes/cffi bindings.

------
malkia
Last I've looked at it, it took quite a long time to compile compared to
CPython (while say luajit is not taking that much longer to compile compared
to reference lua).

~~~
octopus
The stable PyPy version is provided as a binary. In principle you will need to
compile this from sources only if you have special needs.

Have a look here (binaries for Mac, Linux and Windows):

<http://pypy.org/download.html#default-with-a-jit-compiler>

