Python to C++ converter
This project was suggested for the "hack day" at CW25. It was not selected as a project for the competition, but several people expressed an interest regardless.
C++ programs run faster than Python, so are likely to use less energy, e.g., on an HPC system. There is also some evidence that C++ programs use less power (see original proposal). So, it is desirable to use C++.
But much existing code is written in Python. And, many programmers don't know C++.
The idea of this project is to develop a tool which can convert Python source code to C++ source code, which can then be compiled and run. In theory, this would allow programmers to run C++ code even if they don't know C++. And programmers, whether they know C++ or not, could "convert" an existing Python code base into C++.
We want to be able to do this:
python converter.py -i file.py -o file.cpp --filetype script|lib
The generated C++ file would then need to be compiled before being run.
A side issue: in theory, the converter.py tool could generate a C++ file which could do the same as itself, i.e.
python converter.py -i converter.py -o converter.cpp --filetype script
i.e. converter.cpp could be compiled into a converter executable which would do the same as converter.py. It will have to be seen whether this is possible or not. This is mentioned purely as an interesting possibility; it is not the main point of this project.
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Pyxie compiler by Michael Sparks (Previous iteration here)