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possibilities for fast dynamic code execution in Python

I have some code available in some form of AST and I would like to execute it.

I can think of several ways to do this, e.g.:

  • Just straight-forwardly interpret it.
  • Translate it into a Python AST (the ast module) and
    • Python-compile that or
    • Python-eval that.
  • Translate it into Python source code (e.g. a pure string) and
    • Python-compile that or
    • Python-eval that.
  • Translate it in some form of low level code and write a simple VM in Python which runs that.

I guess I would get the fasted execution by translating it into a Python AST, compile that and run that. Esp. when using PyPy, I might even get improvements by PyPys JIT compiling optimizations (I hope I do, do I?).

Can you think of other possibilities? Can you give suggestions on what might be the best way?

Solution

  • Another possibility: translate the AST directly to Python byte code and execute that. This is like your last idea except using the existing Python VM.

    It is not a great possibility because it could be a lot of work and Python compile would probably do a better job except in rather peculiar cases, but I'm just throwing it out there.