Anybody claiming it's almost Python is kidding themselves. This compiler needs to do static type checking. This is inherently impossible in Python. Not just because of some obscure corner cases that nobody uses. It's baked into the language itself.
Reality-check: Why do you think type hints and type checkers like mypy and pyright take such a long time to get going and even they are not there yet? If this was all so easy with just ignoring some obscure rarely used features then mypy would work with essentially no type annotations, all just automatic inferences. Anybody who has tried to work with type annotations in Python knows how hard this is.
So, those guys are quite obviously overselling their product. I can understand it, academic life is hard, and once you've completed your Ph.D., what can you do. You need to stand out. But these claims don't pass the smell test, sorry.
Just tried: it hangs on a numpy import. Hell it hangs on an "import time" module. If I cannot reinterpret code that is already written, then I might as well just rewrite code in a language that is better suited. Saying I can 'compile' Python code like this does indeed look like an oversell and a half.
I mean... if you had a 'compiler; for python that looked at my code at runtime- including imports- and all my current input and.... given the data types it sees and nothing more, do type-inference and recompilation down to LLVM and then to my machine code, while taking things that were already calling compiled modules (like numpy) and keeping them separate subroutines and thus only operating on the 'slow' parts of my code... with the speedups therein.. I'd be sold.
Of course, I think I basically just described Julia.
If I can write (mostly) python code and get it to run on my GPU they can oversell this all they want.
I have a couple of projects I’ve been wanting to tackle but put off because I like python but it wouldn’t be a very good fit due to performance reasons. Now I get a whole new herd of yaks to shave.
Plus, extensible compiler? Who doesn’t want linq in python?
Reality-check: Why do you think type hints and type checkers like mypy and pyright take such a long time to get going and even they are not there yet? If this was all so easy with just ignoring some obscure rarely used features then mypy would work with essentially no type annotations, all just automatic inferences. Anybody who has tried to work with type annotations in Python knows how hard this is.
So, those guys are quite obviously overselling their product. I can understand it, academic life is hard, and once you've completed your Ph.D., what can you do. You need to stand out. But these claims don't pass the smell test, sorry.