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I feel we've talked past each other about what is/is not Python a few times. There is Cython and Pythran and Pypy and ShedSkin and Numba and others that are targeting, for lack of a more precise term, "extreme compatibility with" CPython, but also trying to provide an escape hatch for performance which includes in-language low levelness including allocation tricks that are not "mainstream CPython" (well, Pypy may not have those...).

My first reply was questioning "what counts" as "Python". Cython is its own language, not just "C", nor just "Python", but can do "low level things" such as using C's alloca. Maybe the only prior update here is on the diversity of "Python" impls. There are a lot. This is another reason why language levelness is hard to pin down which was always my main point, upon which we do not disagree. Maybe this is what you meant by "exceptionally general", but I kinda feel like "there isn't just one 'Python'" got lost. { There used to be a joke.."Linux isn't" related to the variety of distros/default configs/etc. :-) }

Advice-wise, I would say that your claim can be closer to easily true if you adjust it to say "ripgrep needs 'low level tricks' to be fast and a language that allows them, such as Rust". That phrasing side-steps worrying about levelnesses in the large of programming languages, re-assigns it to techniques which is more concrete and begs the question of technique enumeration. That is the right question to beg, though, if not in this conversation then in others. You might learn how each and every technique has representation in various other programming languages. It's late for me, though. So, good night!



Ah I see. You are right. I missed that you were going after that. I'm personally only really familiar with CPython, so that is indeed what I had in mind. To be honest, I don't really know what a ripgrep in Cython would look like. Is there a separate Cython standard library, for example? Or do you still use Python's main standard library?

We don't have to tumble down that rabbit hole though. If someone wrote a ripgrep in Cython and matched performance, then I would definitely learn something.

> "ripgrep needs 'low level tricks' to be fast and a language that allows them, such as Rust"

I might use that, sure. I think my point above was that I had to riff off of someone else's language. But I think we covered that. :-) In any case, yes, that phrasing sounds better.

Anyway, good chatting with you, good night!




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