Question

Someone could point out sites/books where I can find introductory documentation about the architecture of the Python VM?

I’m interested in the C version, but if there are easy-to-follow references about other implementations it could be helpful too.

I’m trying to find any kind of resources of higher level than plain source code (however, UML diagrams or something like that would be nice) And also, information about the design decisions involved, including tradeoffs between the different factors (performance, stability, simplicity).

Answer 1

You should be able to find the information you need at https://github.com/python/cpython/blob/HEAD/Python/ceval.c

If that’s too low level for you, try

• http://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0339/
• http://codespeak.net/pypy/dist/pypy/doc/interpreter.html
• http://thermalnoise.wordpress.com/2007/12/30/exploring-python-bytecode/
• https://docs.python.org/library/dis.html#python-bytecode-instructions
• http://wiki.python.org/moin/ByteplayDoc
• http://peak.telecommunity.com/DevCenter/BytecodeAssembler
• http://nedbatchelder.com/blog/200804/wicked_hack_python_bytecode_tracing.html
• https://jasonleaster.github.io/2016/02/21/architecture-of-python-virtual-machine/