LPython: Novel, Fast, Retargetable Python Compiler (2023)
12 comments
·May 13, 2025nathan_compton
raffraffraff
Most of the time, Python's biggest issue isn't performance, it's the nightmare of trying to distribute it. If you want to merely run a python program you need to be educated in "python DevOps", or you'll get people gasping and saying "FFS, why don't you just create an env and activate it and pip install to it then make your own flipping shortcut to a script that activates that env and runs your code, you moron, Jeeeeeesus."
dumah
PEP-723 solves this nicely.
theanonymousone
Hopefully PEP-723 and uv will alleviate this.
gjvc
that the "activate it" part gets any airtime really pisses me off. that has all to do with bash and zero to do with python. the "activate" script should never have seen the light of day.
include a bin/run-python wrapper script in your project, and have that set environment variables and call the .venv/bin/python binary. done.
yes, i realise in replying to this comment i'm admitting that i'm part of the problem exactly described, but the "activate" script has caused more confusion in the long run than is worthwhile and the "running from a .venv/" directory could have been a much smaller problem instead of the wind-tunnel it has become.
terlisimo
why not solve it with bash then, just put
#!/path/to/your/venv/bin/python
as first the line of your script, done/done
throwaway7783
What's your personal favorite better, fun, tight language?
nathan_compton
I love programming in Scheme. I played with Nim recently and appreciated the type system. I also enjoy Common Lisp. Heck, I ever prefer Java! Haskell, Ocaml, Julia! I'd rather program in any of them.
sgammon
Kotlin
theanonymousone
I'm following them since their first mention in HN in 2023, particularly for Wasm support in compilation. Still not much output, unfortunately.
brudgers
The repository appears to be active, https://github.com/lcompilers/lpython
sgammon
How does this compare to GraalPy? Why create something new when GraalPy can already build native programs?
Very neat but what an Albatross Python is, especially in the AI era. It is clearly the best language to choose for many applications given the network effects and the fact that AI can program it so effectively, but I really wish we weren't locked into it. So many better, more fun, more tight, languages out there.
And all this effort to eek out performance. Get off my lawn etc.