As programming languages go, Python is hot. It was TIOBE’s language of the year in 2007 because of its fast growth. Python’s performance, while certainly good enough for most applications, is middle of the road in the grand scheme of languages. This has led to efforts like Psyco and Cython to make Python faster as needed.
We’re pleased to introduce the latest SitePen-supported open source project: Psychotic. As the name implies, Psychotic is inspired by the previous work of Psyco. Indeed, speeding up your program with Psychotic is just as easy as it is with Psyco:
import psychotic
psychotic.full()
There are some important differences between Psychotic and Psyco though. Unlike Psyco, Psychotic is:
- Cross-architecture
- Uses extremely small amounts of memory
- Breaks the Constant Time Barrier!
- Optimizes Python’s internal C code (here’s an example that runs many times faster despite mainly exercising Python’s C code)
If you think Psychotic sounds too good to be true, you should watch the introductory screencast to see it in action, or download it yourself and give it a try!
Psychotic is open source and liberally dodecuply licensed. You’ll find the pure Python source easy to understand. And, above all, you’ll find that your command-line scripts run faster than you’ve ever imagined.