PyPy Sprint

In the four days from 19th March till 22th March (inclusive) the PyPy team will host a sprint on their new Python-in-Python implementation. The PyPy project was granted funding by the European Union as part of its Sixth Framework Program, and is now on track to produce a stackless Python-in-Python Just-in-Time Compiler by December 2006. Our Python implementation, released under the MIT/BSD license, already provides new levels of flexibility and extensibility at the core interpreter and object implementation level.

Armin Rigo and Holger Krekel will also give talks about PyPy and the separate py.test tool (used to perform various kinds of testing in PyPy) during the conference.

Naturally, we are eager to see how the other re-implementation of Python, namely IronPython, is doing and to explore collaboration possibilities. Of course, that will depend on the degree of openness that Microsoft wants to employ.

The Pycon2005 sprint is going to focus on reaching compatibility with CPython (currently we target version 2.3.4) for our PyPy version running on top of CPython. One goal of the sprint is to pass 60% or more of the unmodified regression tests of mainline CPython. It will thus be a great way to get to know CPython and PyPy better at the same time! Other possible work areas include:

• translation to C to get a first working lower-level representation of the interpreter "specified in Python"
• integrating and implementing a full parser/compiler chain written in Python perhaps already targetting the new AST-branch of mainline CPython
• fixing various remaining issues that will come up while trying to reach the compatibility goal

* integrating or coding pure python implementations of some Python modules which are currently written in C.

* whatever issues you come up with! (but please tell us before hand so we can better plan introductions etc.)

If you have other interests feel free to suggest different sprint topics! Besides core developers Bea Düring, our "process manager" will be present to help improving and document our sprint and agile development process.

We are going to give tutorials about PyPy's basic concepts and provide help to newcomers usually by pairing them with experienced pypythonistas. However, we ask newcomers to be present on the first day's morning (19th of March) of the sprint to be able to get everyone a smooth start into the sprint. So far most newcomers had few problems in getting a good start into our codebase. However, it is good to have the following preparational points in mind:

• experience programming in the Python language and interest to dive deeper

• subscription to [http://codespeak.net/mailman/listinfo/pypy-dev pypy-dev] and [http://codespeak.net/mailman/listinfo/pypy-sprint pypy-sprint].

• have a subversion-client, Pygame and graphviz installed on the machine you bring to the sprint.

• have a look at our current [http://codespeak.net/pypy/index.cgi?doc/ documentation], especially the [http://codespeak.net/pypy/index.cgi?doc/architecture architecture] and [http://codespeak.net/pypy/index.cgi?doc/howtopypy getting-started] documents.

The pypy-dev and pypy-sprint lists are also the contact points for raising questions and suggesting and discussing sprint topics beforehand. We are also on #pypy on freenode most of the time. Please don't hesitate to contact us or introduce yourself, your background and your interests at pypy-sprint!

Participants

If you aren't planning to be available for all four days of the sprints, please note which days you will be around.

• Jacob Hallén
• Armin Rigo
• Samuele Pedroni
• Anders Chrigström
• Bea Düring
• Christian Tismer (Key Bridge, shares with Lutz))
• Richard Emslie (Econo Lodge Metro, shares with Holger)
• Holger Krekel (Econo Lodge Metro, shares with Richard)
• Lutz Pälike (Key Bridge, shares with Christian)
• Bob Ippolito

CategoryPyCon2005