PythonExtra Internals

This chapter covers a tour of PythonExtra from the perspective of a developer, contributing to PythonExtra. It acts as a comprehensive resource on the implementation details of PythonExtra for both novice and expert contributors.

Development around PythonExtra usually involves modifying the core runtime, porting or maintaining a new library. This guide describes at great depth, the implementation details of PythonExtra including a getting started guide, compiler internals, porting PythonExtra to a new platform and implementing a core PythonExtra library.

• Getting Started
  • Source control with git
  • Get the code
  • Compile and build the code
    • Required dependencies
    • Building the PythonExtra cross-compiler
    • Building the Unix port of PythonExtra
    • Building the Windows port
    • Building the STM32 port
  • Building the documentation
  • Running the tests
  • Folder structure
• Writing tests
• The Compiler
  • Adding a grammar rule
  • Adding a lexical token
  • Parsing
  • Compiler passes
    • First pass
    • Second and third passes
    • Fourth pass
  • Emitting bytecode
  • Emitting native code
• Memory Management
  • The object model
  • Allocation of objects
• Implementing a Module
  • Implementing a core module
• Optimizations
  • Frozen bytecode
  • Variables
  • Allocation of memory
• PythonExtra string interning
  • Compile-time QSTR generation
  • Run-time QSTR generation
• Maps and Dictionaries
  • Open addressing
  • Linear probing
• The public C API
• Extending PythonExtra in C
  • PythonExtra external C modules
    • Structure of an external C module
    • Basic example
    • Compiling the cmodule into PythonExtra
    • Module usage in PythonExtra
  • Native machine code in .mpy files
    • Supported features and limitations
    • Defining a native module
    • Minimal example
    • Compiling the module
    • Module usage in PythonExtra
    • Further examples
• Porting PythonExtra
  • Minimal PythonExtra firmware
  • PythonExtra Configurations
  • Support for standard input/output
  • Building and running
  • Adding a module to the port