Hey guys!
I'm Ethan, I'm one of 10 Peregrine developers. This post is gonna be about some updates we've added into Peregrine lately.
About
If you know Python, you know how easy it is. However, it also comes with a big downgrade. Python is slow, and I'm pretty sure every python developer knows this by now. This is kind of annoying. That's where Peregrine comes in. Me and 8 other friends have been working on Peregrine for the past few months. Peregines syntax is very similar to Python's, and it gets trans-compiled to C, thus making it as fast as C. Below I've written 2 programs, one in Peregrine and one in Python.
Peregrine
def fib(int n) -> int :
if n <= 0:
return 1
return fib(n-1) + fib(n-2)
def main():
count = 0 # Peregrine has type inference!
int res = 0
while count < 40:
res = fib(count)
count++
function return types can be omitted.
Python
def fib(n):
if n <= 0:
return 1
return fib(n-1) + fib(n-2)
res = 0
for c in range(0, 40):
res = fib(c)
These two programs are almost the same, which makes it so easy for Python users to switch to. Now, you might be asking: "How much faster is Peregrine?" Well, to answer your question, here are the results:
Peregrine:
Executed in: 1.06 secs
Python:
Executed in: 32.30 secs
As you can see, Peregrine is significantly faster than Python. It is around 30x faster than python, without optimization when running this program.
What's new?
Here are some of Peregrine's newest features:
Type Inference
Type Inference is one of Pergrine's newest features. This allows Peregrine code to be written with simplicity.
if/else/match
Although this may seem like a standard feature in any programming language, it does take time to add these features which is why I'm acknowledging it. Not much to say about it since it's in every programming language.
New-ish Features
Let's talk more about the features that are currently available in Peregrine.
Ccode
Ccode allows C code to be ran in Peregrine. Here is an example:
def main():
x = 1
Ccode x++; Ccode
print("{x}\n") # prints 2
As you can see, any variables declared outside the Ccode block can be used within Ccode and vice versa. This also means you can import any C library through Ccode and use it in Peregrine.
Inline Assembly
You can also have inline assembly in Peregrine. Here is an example:
def main():
int arg1 = 45
int arg2 = 50
int add = 0
print("It should add 45 and 50 using asm and print it\n")
asm("addl %%ebx, %%eax;" : "=a" (add) : "a" (arg1) , "b" (arg2))
printf("%lld", add)
This prints 90, as expected.
More
You can find some more examples in the Peregrine test folder
Planned Features
- Structs
- More decorators for different purposes
- Python ecosystem in Peregrine
- You will be able to use any python module in Peregrine
Conclusion
Peregrine is planned to release version 0.0.1 sometime in March, so make sure to show some support by starring the repo and make sure to press on the "Watch" button so you don't miss any updates.
We would greatly appreciate any contributions, so if you find something that you can improve, open a pull-request! You can also check out our open issues
Thanks so much for reading!
Latest comments (97)
If you going to create a package maneger name it as (Hatcher) it will suitable for peregrine
Cool name
Can peregrine able to use java,python,C++ native library?
you mean ffi?
Yes
Yes you can
How is trans compiling to see C, going to be different from what Python is doing? Unless I'm mistaken this is what CPython is doing, it's just doing it in real time, aka interpreting. And we can force Python, to compile instead of interpret already. Am I missing something here?
You're not missing anything, just a lot of hype over something new and shiny (with nice branding and graphics on the GitHub page)
This could be a python 4.x.x!
The language is wrote in V, perhaps you can make a transpiler for V along with C, then you have fast compile time as well.
This site is so amazing, This sites gives good knowledge of python , This is very helpful for me.Here all content so useful and helpful for beginner.
The powerful programming language that is also easy to learn, Python has fewer keywords and more free English language syntax whereas C is more difficult to write. Hence, if you want an easy development process go for Python. Speed-wise C is a better option. spell to make people break up
Have you seen Scala 3?
Does swallow going to support OOPS?
I am not able to find an extension of this language on vs code, is there any?
Also, will it be compatible with packages say numpy, tensorflow, flask etc?
Awesome effort btw
not yet
Ccode x++; Ccodedoes it have to be on one line? Or is it a block. If it is a block, can it be imported (I will put whatever C code into a c file and then import/include it where I need it)?You can put whatever you want inside it ;)
I really think that keeping the syntax similar to python is better. It will be an easy shift from the language
You might want to fix the typo for the inline assembly example... :-D
Where is it?
Hi guys! Very interesting idea. I use Python to develop scientific applications. Pythonis great bcoz of the scientific modules but it's a pain to develop applications with it. Particularly, i
I'd love to see:
1) No GIL. There are plenty of solutions for multiprocessing pools for data analytics, but Python is excruciatingly painful when creating concurrent threads that require intercommunication, which is the core of any application. I'd love to be able to create threads easily without having to spawn a whole new process. Also, that it us possible to have memory-shated spaces without the annoyance of using ctypes, which is not native. In reality, I feel thst the true problem here more than the GIL is dynamic typing, but I'm not an expert.
2) Portability of scientific libraries. I know you have it in the pipeline, but thus is the real advantage of python to me.
3) runtime enviornmemt to deploy applications, which is totally lacking.
I know I might be in a very small niche, but I feel there is a need there for building applications that require scientific-level data processing. I know that the standard solution to this problem is:
1) write the app in java/C#/C++ n embed compiled c code from python/Matlab scripts for the data processing bits. But that works well only if the data processing is contained. Otherwise, it's a lot of interface. For a big company, they can afford to have a deducated team for translation, but startups, those that usr python the most, cannot.
2) use scijava or other numerical packages. But those suck.
Python is great because it allows to go from analytics to production, except that production sucks.
Best Regards and Best of luck!
Is it swallow or peregrine the name of lang ? great work btw, I m pretty amazed by the time and or performance ratio for pretty much the same syntax.
Peregrine. We renamed the language because people were suggesting it. Sorry for any confusion, and thanks for your support!