Creating a new language within the Python virtual machine

Question

Is it possible to create a new language for the Python Virtual Machine? I was reading over http://late.am/post/2012/03/26/exploring-python-code-objects , where the blogger discusses Python code objects. In it, he discusses a disassembly of a code object into bytecode and what the symbols in it mean.

This made me think there could be alternative ways to construct this bytecode. I was curious about the ability to create a sandboxed language within Python bytecode so that Python could load it up. Using Python itself for sandboxing seems darn near impossible, but this appears to make a pathway for another implementation language.

Where would I start if I wanted to pursue this venture? What might be a better approach, and where would I find more on other approaches?

I am fairly certain you could, but it would probably end up being a large project. — Anorov, Dec 07 '12 at 21:38
I've flagged this for migration to Programmers. And I'd build it on top of PyPy's [sandboxing feature](http://pypy.org/features.html). — Martijn Pieters, Dec 07 '12 at 21:41
You can look at [how why did it](https://github.com/whymirror/unholy). It's probably a big hack, but it used to work — Niklas B., Dec 07 '12 at 22:31
@NiklasB., you should put that in answer form. That appears to be precisely the sort of thing I'd be looking for. — Kelketek, Dec 08 '12 at 01:10

Niklas B. · Accepted Answer · 2012-12-08T01:32:00.953

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Why the lucky stiff once hacked together a script that would compile Ruby code into Python bytecode. I remember that it worked well for simple Ruby scripts. You can look at the sources to see how he did it.

EDIT: So what he does is let the Ruby VM generate Ruby bytecode, than translate that bytecode to Python. Could still be interesting to see how the Python bytecode is assembled :)

edited Dec 08 '12 at 01:32

answered Dec 08 '12 at 01:15

Niklas B.

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score 2 · Answer 2 · answered Dec 08 '12 at 00:32

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I think a good place to start would be ply, here's a Lisp implementation using ply: http://www.juanjoconti.com.ar/files/python/mini-lisp/

I'm not sure if ply can generate syntax trees using Python's ast module, but it should be possible.

answered Dec 08 '12 at 00:32

Gonzalo

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Creating a new language within the Python virtual machine

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