Expert Python Programming - Second Edition

Chapter 7. Python Extensions in Other Languages

When writing Python-based applications, you are not limited to the Python language alone. There are tools such as Hy, mentioned briefly in Chapter 3, Syntax Best Practices – above the Class Level. It allows you to write modules, packages, or even whole applications with some other language (dialect of Lisp) that will run in Python virtual machine. Although it gives you the ability to express program logic with completely different syntax, it is still quite the same language because it compiles to the same bytecode. It means that it has the same limitations as ordinary Python code:

• Threading usability is greatly reduced due to the existence of GIL
• It is not compiled
• It does not provide static typing ...