CPython

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Not to be confused with Cython.
CPython
Developer(s) Python core developers and the Python community, supported by the Python Software Foundation
Stable release 3.3.3 /
12 November 2013 (2013-11-12)
2.7.6 /
10 November 2013 (2013-11-10)
Written in C
Platform Cross-platform
Type Python Programming Language Interpreter
License Python Software Foundation License
Website www.python.org

CPython is the default, most-widely used implementation of the Python programming language. It is written in C. In addition to CPython, there are other "production-quality" Python implementations: Jython, written in Java, PyPy, and IronPython, which is written for the Common Language Infrastructure. There are also several experimental implementations.[1]

CPython is a bytecode interpreter. It has a foreign function interface with several languages including C, in which one must explicitly write bindings in a language other than Python.

Supported platforms[2]

Unix-like
Special and embedded
Other

Previously supported platforms

PEP 11 lists platforms which are not supported in CPython by Python Software Foundation. These platforms can still be supported by external ports. See below.

  • AtheOS (unsupported since 2.6)
  • BeOS (unsupported since 2.6)
  • DOS (unsupported since 2.0)
  • IRIX 4 (unsupported since 2.3)
  • Mac OS 9 (unsupported since 2.4)
  • MINIX (unsupported since 2.3)
  • Windows 3.x (unsupported since 2.0)
  • Windows 9x (unsupported since 2.6)
  • Windows NT4 (unsupported since 2.6)

External ports

These are ports not integrated to Python Software Foundation's official version of CPython, with links to its main development site. Ports often include additional modules for platform-specific functionalities, like graphics and sound API for PSP and SMS and camera API for S60.

Concurrency issues

A significant drawback to using CPython is the presence of a Global Interpreter Lock on each CPython interpreter process, which effectively disables concurrent Python threads within one process.[3] To be truly concurrent in multitasking environment, separate CPython interpreter processes have to be run, which makes establishing communication between them a difficult task, though the multiprocessing module mitigates this somewhat. A lot of discussion took place whether to remove the GIL from CPython, even after the rejection of the “free threading” patches on CPython from Greg Stein which effectively replaced GIL with fine-grained locking. The rejection was mainly based on the overhead the patch inflicted to execution of single process code.[4]

Version history

Version Release date Supported until
Old version, no longer supported: 2.2 2001-12-21[5] 2003-05-30[6]
Old version, no longer supported: 2.3 2003-07-29[7] 2008-03-11[8]
Old version, no longer supported: 2.4 2004-11-30[9] 2008-12-19[10]
Old version, no longer supported: 2.5 2006-09-19[11] 2011-05-26[12]
Old version, no longer supported: 2.6 2008-10-01[13] 2013-10-29[14]
Older version, yet still supported: 2.7 2010-07-03[15] 2015 (at least)[16]
Old version, no longer supported: 3.0 2008-12-03[17] 2009-06-27[18]
Older version, yet still supported: 3.1 2009-06-27[19] 2014-06[20]
Older version, yet still supported: 3.2 2011-02-20[21] 2016-02[22]
Current stable version: 3.3 2012-09-29[23] 2017-09[24]
Future release: 3.4 2014-02-23[25]
Legend:
Old version
Older version, still supported
Latest version
Latest preview version
Future release

References

  1. ↑ Martelli, Alex (2006). Python in a Nutshell (2nd edition ed.). O'Reilly. pp. 5–7. ISBN 978-0-596-10046-9. 
  2. ↑ "PythonImplementations". Retrieved 19 July 2012. 
  3. ↑ "Initialization, Finalization, and Threads — Python v2.7.6 documentation". Docs.python.org. Retrieved 2014-02-06. 
  4. ↑ "Library and Extension FAQ". Python v3.3.0 documentation. Python Software Foundation. "Can't we get rid of the Global Interpreter Lock?". Archived from the original on March 4, 2013. 
  5. ↑ "Python 2.2". Python.org. Retrieved 2014-02-06. 
  6. ↑ "Python 2.2.3". Python.org. Retrieved 2014-02-06. 
  7. ↑ "Python 2.3". Python.org. 2003-07-29. Retrieved 2014-02-06. 
  8. ↑ "Python 2.3.7 Release". Python.org. 2008-03-11. Retrieved 2014-02-06. 
  9. ↑ "Python 2.4". Python.org. 2004-11-30. Retrieved 2014-02-06. 
  10. ↑ "Python 2.4.6 Release". Python.org. 2008-12-19. Retrieved 2014-02-06. 
  11. ↑ "Python 2.5 Release". Python.org. 2006-09-19. Retrieved 2014-02-06. 
  12. ↑ "Python 2.5.6". Python.org. 2011-05-26. Retrieved 2014-02-06. 
  13. ↑ "Python 2.6 Release". Python.org. 2008-10-01. Retrieved 2014-02-06. 
  14. ↑ "Python 2.6.9 Release". Python.org. 2013-10-29. Retrieved 2014-02-06. 
  15. ↑ "Python 2.7 Release". Python.org. 2010-07-03. Retrieved 2014-02-06. 
  16. ↑ "PEP 373 - Python 2.7 Release Schedule". Python.org. Retrieved 2014-02-06. 
  17. ↑ "Python 3.0 Release". Python.org. 2008-12-03. Retrieved 2014-02-06. 
  18. ↑ "Python 3.0.1 Release". Python.org. 2009-02-13. Retrieved 2014-02-06. 
  19. ↑ "Python 3.1 Release". Python.org. 2009-06-27. Retrieved 2014-02-06. 
  20. ↑ "PEP 375 - Python 3.1 Release Schedule". Python.org. Retrieved 2014-02-06. 
  21. ↑ "Python 3.2 Release". Python.org. 2011-02-20. Retrieved 2014-02-06. 
  22. ↑ "PEP 392 - Python 3.2 Release Schedule". Python.org. Retrieved 2014-02-06. 
  23. ↑ "Python 3.3.0 Release". Python.org. 2012-09-29. Retrieved 2014-02-06. 
  24. ↑ "PEP 398 - Python 3.3 Release Schedule". Python.org. Retrieved 2014-02-06. 
  25. ↑ "PEP 429 - Python 3.4 Release Schedule". Python.org. Retrieved 2014-02-06. 
Implementations
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