PyPy Status Blog: A JIT for Regular Expression Matching - this is the reason why I firmly believe that the future of Python is PyPy (or something similar) and why I want something like PyPy. An environment where all language elements are reduced to a common base, where I can work at all levels of abstraction - if necessary even at the level of code generation. This offers significantly more pleasant optimization options than the CPython model, where higher performance beyond a certain point is only achievable through C extensions. However, I also come from Lisp, where it is quite common to work with a language family from high-level language elements down to code generation. My Xerox Lisp machine had a TCP/IP stack written in a subset of Interlisp - this is quite comparable to the situation of PyPy and RPython.