Ask HN: Is anyone using PyPy for real work?

Thanks for reminding me to look at PyPy again. I usually start all my new Python projects with this block of commands that I keep handy:

Create venv and activate it and install packages:

  python3 -m venv venv
  source venv/bin/activate
  python3 -m pip install --upgrade pip
  python3 -m pip install wheel
  pip install -r requirements.txt

I wanted a similar one-liner that I could use on a fresh Ubuntu machine so I can try out PyPy easily in the same way. After a bit of fiddling, I came up with this monstrosity which should work with both bash and zsh (though I only tested it on zsh):

Create venv and activate it and install packages using pyenv/pypy/pip:

  if [ -d "$HOME/.pyenv" ]; then rm -Rf $HOME/.pyenv; fi && \
  curl https://pyenv.run | bash && \
  DEFAULT_SHELL=$(basename "$SHELL") && \
  if [ "$DEFAULT_SHELL" = "zsh" ]; then RC_FILE=~/.zshrc; else RC_FILE=~/.bashrc; fi && \
  if ! grep -q 'export PATH="$HOME/.pyenv/bin:$PATH"' $RC_FILE; then echo -e '\nexport PATH="$HOME/.pyenv/bin:$PATH"' >> $RC_FILE; fi && \
  if ! grep -q 'eval "$(pyenv init -)"' $RC_FILE; then echo 'eval "$(pyenv init -)"' >> $RC_FILE; fi && \
  if ! grep -q 'eval "$(pyenv virtualenv-init -)"' $RC_FILE; then echo 'eval "$(pyenv virtualenv-init -)"' >> $RC_FILE; fi && \
  source $RC_FILE && \
  LATEST_PYPY=$(pyenv install --list | grep -P '^  pypy[0-9\.]*-\d+\.\d+' | grep -v -- '-src' | tail -1) && \
  LATEST_PYPY=$(echo $LATEST_PYPY | tr -d '[:space:]') && \
  echo "Installing PyPy version: $LATEST_PYPY" && \
  pyenv install $LATEST_PYPY && \
  pyenv local $LATEST_PYPY && \
  pypy -m venv venv && \
  source venv/bin/activate && \
  pip install --upgrade pip && \
  pip install wheel && \
  pip install -r requirements.txt

Maybe others will find it useful.

They all come as wheels, they just aren't precompiled.

Yeah, perhaps. One I remember from last year is the cryptography and numpy package, for instance. Now they do seem to ship with binary wheels, at least for my current Python and Linux version.

Kerberos and Hadoop stuff obviously still doesn't, though. I guess the joke's on me for being stuck in this stack...

I actually donated to the Pypy project in the past but I don’t use it.

Two reasons for my hesitation:

1) Cpython is fast enough for most things I need to do. The speed improvement from Pypy is either not enough or not necessary.

2) Lingering doubts about subtle incompatibility (in terms of library support) that I might have to spend hours getting to the bottom of.

I already work long hours and don’t have bandwidth to tinker. With Cpython, although slow, I can be assured is the standard surface that everyone targets, and I can google solutions for.

It’s the subtle things that i waste a lot of time on. It’s analogous to an Ubuntu user trying to use Red Hat. They’re both Linuxes but the way things are done are different enough that they trip you up.

The only way to get out of this quandary is for Pypy to be a first class citizen. Guido will never endorse this so this means a bunch of us will always have hesitation putting it into production systems.

Can you describe what in this situation warrants it?

I'm very curious about where the line is/should be.