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Reference
ActivePython 2.5
Python Documentation
Library Reference
Front Matter
Contents
1. Introduction
2. Built-in Objects
3. Built-in Types
4. String Services
5. Data Types
6. Numeric and Mathematical Modules
7. Internet Data Handling
8. Structured Markup Processing Tools
9. File Formats
10. Cryptographic Services
11. File and Directory Access
12. Data Compression and Archiving
13. Data Persistence
14. Generic Operating System Services
15. Optional Operating System Services
16. Unix Specific Services
17. Interprocess Communication and Networking
18. Internet Protocols and Support
19. Multimedia Services
20. Graphical User Interfaces with Tk
21. Internationalization
22. Program Frameworks
23. Development Tools
24. The Python Debugger
25. The Python Profilers
26. Python Runtime Services
27. Custom Python Interpreters
28. Restricted Execution
29. Importing Modules
30. Python Language Services
31. Python compiler package
31.1 The basic interface
31.2 Limitations
31.3 Python Abstract Syntax
31.4 Using Visitors to Walk ASTs
31.5 Bytecode Generation
32. Abstract Syntax Trees
33. Miscellaneous Services
34. SGI IRIX Specific Services
35. SunOS Specific Services
36. MS Windows Specific Services
A. Undocumented Modules
B. Reporting Bugs
C. History and License
Module Index
Index
About this document ...

MyASPN >> Reference >> ActivePython 2.5 >> Python Documentation >> Library Reference
ActivePython 2.5 documentation


31. Python compiler package

The Python compiler package is a tool for analyzing Python source code and generating Python bytecode. The compiler contains libraries to generate an abstract syntax tree from Python source code and to generate Python bytecode from the tree.

The compiler package is a Python source to bytecode translator written in Python. It uses the built-in parser and standard parser module to generated a concrete syntax tree. This tree is used to generate an abstract syntax tree (AST) and then Python bytecode.

The full functionality of the package duplicates the builtin compiler provided with the Python interpreter. It is intended to match its behavior almost exactly. Why implement another compiler that does the same thing? The package is useful for a variety of purposes. It can be modified more easily than the builtin compiler. The AST it generates is useful for analyzing Python source code.

This chapter explains how the various components of the compiler package work. It blends reference material with a tutorial.

The following modules are part of the compiler package:

compiler  
compiler.ast  
compiler.visitor  

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