On 4/4/14 11:49 PM, Chris Angelico wrote:
On Sat, Apr 5, 2014 at 3:31 PM, Mark H Harris <harrismh...@gmail.com> wrote:Its has always seemed to me that Java or C++ would be better suited to creating python. I wonder will C always be the standard canonical PSF python interpreter base language? Has the C python community considered making the standard base language Java or C++ ?what's the advantage of C++ over C? A Python interpreter needs to do broadly this: 1) Parse a text file into an abstract syntax tree 2) Compile the AST into bytecode 3) Execute the bytecode: 3a) Manage object lifetimes and garbage collection 3b) Perform lower-level calls 3c) Efficiently handle namespaces etc
The only advantage of C++ over C is polymorphism, really. There are in my view only three reasons to even use C++: 1) the iostream library, and 2) polymorphism, and 3) operator overloading. If you need to do all three, then C++ is a really good candidate.
I am still thinking about the concept of unifying Number; Number as a C++ abstract base class, and an entire Class hierarchy which carries through making *any* Number just work. The ability of the C++ compiler to construct and maintain the virtual function tables would be an advantage. Operator overloading (and maybe templates) would make C++ advantageous also.
Guido told me that the modern C python is object oriented. Operator overloading is a big part of this. It seems to me that a modern object oriented language would best be implemented with a true object oriented base language, C++ rather than C. I have always questioned this, just curious why the decision for C was made--- historically, methodologically, and maybe scientifically.
It would be tons of work, but maybe not as much as one might think, initially.
marcus -- https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
