Compiling Pythons with Custom Grammar for the sake of a joke
summary
Rewrites CPython’s grammar to replace the literal import token with AO, edits the grammar file and runs make, then runs a project-wide find-and-replace to change import sites; hits a bootstrap problem when the system Python doesn’t understand AO, solves it by compiling a two-token Python that accepts both import and AO, adding that interpreter to PATH and re-compiling so import becomes invalid and AO random works. Produces a runnable build called Nini, with extra hacked builtins (type → Slytherin, wingardium_leviosa) and it succeeds.
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chapters (9)
- 0:00Start
- 1:39What Is a Python Interpreter
- 3:21Import Statement
- 4:54What Is Compiling a Python Interpreter Mean
- 6:04Syntax Error
- 8:36Bootstrapping
- 11:54Bootstrap Compiling
- 16:09Overriding Built-In Functions
- 30:23Hacker School
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