[Cython] Pi in the sky: Alternate back-end?

[Stefan Behnel]

Magnus Lie Hetland wrote:
> I'm not really suggesting this as project in the near future -- just
> thought I'd hear if it would even be viable. That is, supplementing
> the current C generating code in Cython with (e.g.) Java generating
> code (with the Java code to be used in concert with Jython). This way
> it would be possible to write high-performance code in the Cython
> language/dialect and use it both with CPython and Jython (and, to some
> extent, in C and Java).

Knowing the compiler internals, I don't think this would make much sense.
Both the Cython compiler and the Cython language are closely tied to
CPython and the C language. It should not be too hard to split the C
generation phase from the rest, but most of what happens before that is
already targeted towards C code generation and the CPython environment.
Plus, you'd loose basically everything from the language that starts with
a "cdef".

If the PyPy project ever gets to release anything truely usable, that
should be much better suited to targeting other environments.

That said, there is a project that tries to port CPython extension modules
to IronPython, already with some success from what I heard. An adapted
Cython backend might be very well suited to simplify the interfacing and
porting overhead here. Haven't heard of anything in the Java area, though.

Stefan