Main goals

    The main goal is to use innovative implementation techniques and
    innovative development techniques to produce a better version of the
    popular programming language Python. The new Python will maintain the
    semantics of the current implementation but will have the following
    benefits: it will be more easily customised and extended, it will be
    more portable, it is expected to be more efficient, and it will cover
    more programming paradigms in a way that respects the simplicity of the
    underlying language. In addition, the project will document and refine
    the existing open source development model in the Python
    community. Although targetted principally at Python, most of the
    techniques will also be applicable to other high level languages.

  The approach

    The project will achieve its goals principally by building on the
    strengths of the current open source developer community. In
    particular, it will potentiate existing volunteer initiatives that are
    working on novel implementation techniques, working within the current
    informal framework of design consultation, open source code
    repositories and periodic coding workshops. The project will connect
    this developer community with relevant experts in academia. It will
    also make use of the existing non-profit organisation of Python firms
    to bind end users into the design and trialling of the extended Python
    implementation. Technically, the project will refine and implement an
    innovative approach to language implementation, based on object spaces,
    that allows implementation techniques to be integrated in a modular
    way.

  Concrete results

    Much anecdotal, and some empirical, evidence suggests that Python is
    one of the easiest programming languages to learn and is one of the
    languages in which one can code up a given algorithm the fastest. For
    these reasons, it is particularly popular among those people whose main
    competence lies beyond computer science and for whom programming is a
    secondary activity, that is to say most of the people on the
    planet. The goal of this project is to enable even more people to
    program in Python and ensure that more people will never need to learn
    any other language than Python. They will, instead, be able to
    concentrate on getting their job done.