# $Id: README,v 1.10 2005/07/22 20:17:44 michal Exp $

####################################################
#
# PIRATE
#
####################################################

## status #########################################

Pirate is an attempt to get python running 
on the parrot virtual machine.

It was originally based on amk's parrot-gen.py:

   http://www.amk.ca/conceit/parrot.html

But has been extended considerably and updated
to work with parrot's intermediate code compiler.
Currently, pirate supports:

    - simple lists, strings, ints, dicts, and floats
    - assignment and multi-assignment ( x,y=1,2 )
    - while/else, for/else, if/elif/else, break, continue
    - try...except blocks
    - raise and assert
    - math operations (+, -, *, /, %)
    - boolean logic (and, or, not)
    - comparison operators
    - functions and function calls
    - lambdas
    - parrot calling convention for functions
    - list comprehensions
    - generators
    - proper scoping


## to-do list #####################################

    - classes
    - import
    - lots of little details


## help wanted ####################################
    
    - bug reports! :)
    - anything on the above list
    - __builtin__ routines
    - standard library (hopefully w/help from pypython?)
    - optimization of generated code

    - run C modules from parrot's native call interface 
      PMCs are sead to be very similar to PyObjects. 
      It would be awesome if things like Numeric, 
      pygame, etc could "just work" somehow... :)

      Jack Jansen of MacPython fame says:
      """
      ... bidirectional bridging of Python objects to a 
      similar object architecture is definitely doable. 
      Look at PyObjC <http://pyobjc.sf.net> for a project
      that does a pretty complete bridge between Python 
      and Objective-C.
      """

      Also, ponie seems to be doing the same for
      perl5/XS, and XS is a lot stranger than PyObject.


## cvs access ####################################

To get the code:

 cvs -d:pserver:anonymous@pirate.versionhost.com:/cvs/pirate login
 [no password]
 cvs -d:pserver:anonymous@pirate.versionhost.com:/cvs/pirate co pirate

 
If you want write access to cvs, drop me an email at 
michal@sabren.com



## pair programming? ##############################

I'd also love to do some pair programming on this. If anyone's
interested, let me know and we can meet up online and share
a terminal session on my server. Just let me know! :)



## test first! ####################################

This code is being written test-first. Don't break
the tests, and don't check in any code that doesn't
have a test case. Tests go in PirateTest.py and to
test, just do this:

    python PirateTest.py

Note the run() function has two keyword arguments: 
dump=0 and lines=1. Set dump to 1 to show the 
generated code for a test, set lines to 0 to hide
the line numbers (in case you want to pipe it
to an *.imc file to play around with manually).