In article <10d50t0qrc0sl93 / corp.supernews.com>,
Michael Geary <Mike / DeleteThis.Geary.com> wrote:
>Phil Tomson wrote:
>> Isn't psycho kind of a special varient of Python?  Is it fair
>> to compare psycho Python in the language shootout (they
>> should probalby use the more widely used PythonC).
>
>You may be thinking of Pyrex, a Python dialect that compiles to C and lets
>you mix C and Python data types:
>
>http://www.cosc.canterbury.ac.nz/~greg/python/Pyrex/
>
>Pyrex is really quite nifty, especially for writing C extensions to Python
>and for wrapping existing C libraries. You can still code in Python or close
>to it, and let Pyrex write all the boilerplate C code for you. For
>performance critical algorithms, if you're using C types the generated code
>should be as fast as any other C code.

Kind of like Rubyinline  http://www.zenspider.com/ZSS/Products/RubyInline/ 

Or C-Generator http://redshift.sourceforge.net/cgen/


>
>Psyco, OTOH, works with standard Python code. It's essentially a Just In
>Time compiler for Python:
>
>http://psyco.sourceforge.net/introduction.html
>
>Psyco isn't part of the standard Python distribution--you need to install
>the Psyco module and add this to the top of your source file:
>
>import psyco; psyco.full()
>
>But that's all there is to it. There's nothing special about the
>language--it's standard Python.

From what I've heard, though, it doesn't let you do certian things that 
would be allowable in standard Python.

>
>Psyco is only for x86 at the moment, but it can really pep up Python code on
>the x86.
>
>What's fair for performance comparisons? Well, a thorough language benchmark
>would measure Psyco, standard cPython, and Jython times for x86, plus
>cPython and Jython for other popular processors.

Would it be fair to use Rubyinline? ( I wouldn't think so, but opinions my 
vary.)

>
>These are all Open Source, so don't let anybody stop you from porting them
>to Ruby... :-)

Some of these ideas are being worked on.  And some projects exist already 
(see above links).

Phil