Compiling and Linking in Python

Python first compiles your source code (.py file) into a format known as byte code . Compilation is simply a translation step, and byte code is a lower-level, and platform-independent, representation of your source code. Compiled code is usually stored in .pyc files , and is regenerated when the source is updated, or when otherwise necessary. In order to distribute a program to people who already have Python installed, you can ship either the .py files or the .pyc files. The bytecode (.pyc file) is loaded into the Python runtime and interpreted by a Python Virtual Machine , which is a piece of code that reads each instruction in the bytecode and executes whatever operation is indicated. Byte code compilation is automatic, and the PVM is just part of the Python system that you have installed on your machine. The PVM is always present as part of the Python system , and is the component that truly runs your scripts. Technically, it's just the last step of what is called the Python interpreter. And this is how the process is done (very general). Of course, there are optimizations and caches to improve the performance. Each time an interpreted program is run, the interpreter must convert source code into machine code and also pull in the runtime libraries . This conversion process makes the program run slower than a comparable program written in a compiled language. Python do something clever to improve its performance . It compiles to bytecode (.pyc files) the first time it executes a file. This improves substantially the execution of the code next time the module is imported or executed.




Related Topics
  1. Python Interview Questions (Part 2)
  2. Python Interview Questions (Part 3)
  3. What is python used for?
  4. Is Python interpreted, or compiled, or both?
  5. Explain how python is interpreted
  6. How do I install pip on Windows?
  7. How do you protect Python source code?
  8. What are the disadvantages of the Python?
  9. How would you achieve web scraping in Python?
  10. How to Python Script executable on Unix
  11. What is the difference between .py and .pyc files?
  12. What is __init__.py used for in Python?
  13. What does __name__=='__main__' in Python mean?
  14. What is docstring in Python?
  15. What is the difference between runtime and compile time?
  16. How to use *args and **kwargs in Python
  17. Purpose of "/" and "//" operator in python?
  18. What is the purpose pass statement in python?
  19. Why isn't there a switch or case statement in Python?
  20. How does the ternary operator work in Python?
  21. What is the purpose of "self" in Python
  22. How do you debug a program in Python?
  23. What are literals in python?
  24. What is Python's parameter passing mechanism?
  25. Global and Local Variables in Python
  26. Is there a tool to help find bugs or perform static analysis?
  27. What does the 'yield' keyword do in Python?
  28. Comparison Operators != is not equal to in Python
  29. What is the difference between 'is' and '==' in python
  30. What is the difference between = and == in Python?
  31. How are the functions help() and dir() different?
  32. What is the python keyword "with" used for?
  33. Is all the memory freed when Python exits?
  34. Difference between Mutable and Immutable in Python
  35. Explain split() methods of "re" module in Python
  36. Accessor and Mutator methods in Python
  37. How to Implement an 'enum' in Python
  38. Important characteristics of Python Objects
  39. How to determine the type of instance and inheritance in Python
  40. How would you implement inheritance in Python?
  41. How is Inheritance and Overriding methods are related?
  42. How can you create a copy of an object in Python?
  43. How to avoid having class data shared among instances in Python?
  44. Static class variables in Python
  45. Difference between @staticmethod and @classmethod in Python
  46. How to Get a List of Class Attributes in Python
  47. Does Python supports interfaces like in Java or C#?
  48. What is used to create Unicode string in Python?
  49. Difference between lists and tuples in Python?
  50. What are differences between List and Dictionary in Python
  51. Different file processing modes supported by Python
  52. How do you append to a file in Python?
  53. What are the differences between the threading and multiprocessing?
  54. Is there any way to kill a Thread in Python?
  55. What is the use of lambda in Python?
  56. What is map, filter and reduce in python?
  57. Is monkey patching considered good programming practice?
  58. What is "typeerror: 'module' object is not callable"
  59. Python: TypeError: unhashable type: 'list'
  60. How to convert bytes to string in Python?
  61. What are metaclasses in Python?