Description
-----------

PyPy is a framework written in Python for generating virtual machines
for dynamic languages.  The VMs are flexibly produced from a high-level
"specification" in the form of a simple interpreter for the dynamic
language.  Low-level details like memory allocation and object layout
are not encoded manually, but inserted by the VM generation process.
This allows us to produce VMs that run within a wide range of execution
environments (from C-like to JVM/.NET).  Interesting features can be
automatically inserted into the VMs at production time -- including a
good just-in-time compiler tuned to the dynamic language at hand.

More than "selling" PyPy specifically, our aim in this project is to
raise interest in our approach to virtual machine construction.  After a
demo and architecture overview, I will explain the context in which we
wrote PyPy, and how much of these ideas could be applied to a Smalltalk
context.

Bio
---

/me has been an open source developer and post-doc working in Python on
language implementation issues for quite a few years now, after a
Ph.D. in mathematical logic at the Free University of Brussels.