On 7/9/2011 6:34 PM, Steven D'Aprano wrote:
Suppose instead an implementation of Python did not pre-compile the
function. Each time you called spam(n), the implementatio n would have to
locate the source code and interpret it on the spot. Would that be
allowed?"
If that's your question, then I would call that a Python interpreter using
c.1960 technology (as opposed to a byte-code compiler, which all the main
implementations currently are).
If that were the *only* difference, then I see no reason why it wouldn't be
allowed as an implementation of Python. A horribly slow implementation, but
still an implementation.
while and for loops would also be terribly slow if their bodies were not
compiled but were reinterpreted at the source code level for each loop.
Having to reinterpred the compiled byte code for each loop does make
them slower than compiled to native code C. Same as for functions.
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