Hi Chris!
Christian Seberino wrote:
I'm curious how the various python implementations like JPython,
IronPython, Pypy, ??? can VERIFY they are not deviating from
'correctness' (whatever that means).
You forgot CPython. There are some very obscure details where PyPy is
actually more correct than CPython: in CPython you cannot subclass str
or tuple while adding slots, for no good reason, while you can do that
in PyPy.
Is there a set of unit tests somewhere?
Yes, there is CPython's compliance-testsuite:
http://codespeak.net/svn/pypy/dist/lib-python/2.4.1/test/
It has several drawbacks. One of the biggest is that it does not only
test compliance but also some obscure implementation details. Example:
The itertools tests contain a test that checks whether izip reuses
tuples (which involves mutating them) if izip is the only holder of a
reference to that tuple. Such a thing is only reasonable if you have a
reference counting garbage collector (which is not part of the language
specification).
To counter this problem we had to modify several compliance tests to be
more "pure". These modified tests can be found at:
http://codespeak.net/svn/pypy/dist/lib-python/modified-2.4.1/test/
Is that the best way to approach the problem?
Depends on what you mean with "the problem". If you mean the problem of
verifying language implementation correctness: given a good enough set
of unit tests it would probably be a good approach. But the current
tests are not really good enough.
If you mean the problem of writing new Python implementations: The
answer is "no", of course. The best way to write a new Python
implementation in the future (remember that you are in a PyPy mailing
list) is to write another backend for PyPy's translation toolchain :-)
Cheers,
Carl Friedrich
_______________________________________________
[email protected]
http://codespeak.net/mailman/listinfo/pypy-dev
