Inside The Python Virtual Machine

Inside the Python Virtual Machine provides a guided tour under the covers of the Python interpreter for the curious pythonista. It attempts to show the user what happens from the moment the user executes a piece of Python code to the point when the interpreter returns the result of executing the piece of code.

This book will provide the readers with an understanding of the various processes that go into compiling and executing a python program removing most of the mystery surrounding how the python interpreter executes source code. The books starts out with a description of the compilation phase with emphasis on the less generic parts of the compilation phase. It then proceeds to discuss python objects and their implementation in CPython. This is followed by a discussion of various objects types that are central to the interpreter such as frame objects and code objects. The process of evaluating code objects by the interpreter loop is also discussed as well as how to extend the Python programming language with your own constructs.