There are definitely some limitations beyond just memory or OS interaction.
Right now, PyXL supports a subset of real Python. Many features from CPython are not implemented yet — this early version is mainly to show that it's possible to run Python efficiently in hardware.
I'd prefer to move forward based on clear use cases, rather than trying to reimplement everything blindly.
Also, some features (like heavy runtime reflection, dynamic loading, etc.) would probably never be supported, at least not in the traditional way, because the focus is on embedded and real-time applications.
As for the design process — I’d love to share more!
I'm a bit overwhelmed at the moment preparing for PyCon, but I plan to post a more detailed blog post about the design and philosophy on my website after the conference.
In terms of a feature-set to target, would it make sense to be going after RPython instead of "real" Python? Doing that would let you leverage all the work that PyPy has done on separating what are the essential primitives required to make a Python vs what are the sugar and abstractions that make it familiar:
> I'd prefer to move forward based on clear use cases
Taking the concrete example of the `struct` module as a use-case, I'm curious if you have a plan for it and similar modules. The tricky part of course is that it is implemented in C.
Would you have to rewrite those stdlib modules in pure python?
There are definitely some limitations beyond just memory or OS interaction. Right now, PyXL supports a subset of real Python. Many features from CPython are not implemented yet — this early version is mainly to show that it's possible to run Python efficiently in hardware. I'd prefer to move forward based on clear use cases, rather than trying to reimplement everything blindly.
Also, some features (like heavy runtime reflection, dynamic loading, etc.) would probably never be supported, at least not in the traditional way, because the focus is on embedded and real-time applications.
As for the design process — I’d love to share more! I'm a bit overwhelmed at the moment preparing for PyCon, but I plan to post a more detailed blog post about the design and philosophy on my website after the conference.