Presentation: From Source to Code: How CPython's Compiler Works

Saturday 4:30 p.m.–4:50 p.m. in Colony Ballroom

From Source to Code: How CPython's Compiler Works

Brett Cannon

Audience level:: Novice

Description

How the heck does CPython take a blob of bytes you call source code and create another blob of bytes called bytecode which it is able to execute to make the magic of Python programs work? This talk's aim is to provide a conceptual answer to that question. The overall process of tokenizing, parsing, creating an AST, and then finally emitting bytecode will be covered.

If you have no clue what any of those previous words meant, don't worry! This talk will be accessible to people who are not compiler experts. We'll also cover how various parts of the compiler are exposed through Python's standard library so you can play with what you learn afterwards.