codon

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# What is Codon?

Codon is a high-performance Python implementation that compiles to native machine code without
any runtime overhead. Typical speedups over vanilla Python are on the order of 10-100x or more, on
a single thread. Codon's performance is typically on par with (and sometimes better than) that of
C/C++. Unlike Python, Codon supports native multithreading, which can lead to speedups many times
higher still.

*Think of Codon as Python reimagined for static, ahead-of-time compilation, built from the ground
up with best possible performance in mind.*

## Goals

- :bulb: **No learning curve:** Be as close to CPython as possible in terms of syntax, semantics and libraries
- :rocket: **Top-notch performance:** At *least* on par with low-level languages like C, C++ or Rust
- :computer: **Hardware support:** Full, seamless support for multicore programming, multithreading (no GIL!), GPU and more
- :chart_with_upwards_trend: **Optimizations:** Comprehensive optimization framework that can target high-level Python constructs
  and libraries
- :battery: **Interoperability:** Full interoperability with Python's ecosystem of packages and libraries

## Non-goals

- :x: *Drop-in replacement for CPython:* Codon is not a drop-in replacement for CPython. There are some
  aspects of Python that are not suitable for static compilation — we don't support these in Codon.
  There are ways to use Codon in larger Python codebases via its [JIT decorator](https://docs.exaloop.io/codon/interoperability/decorator)
  or [Python extension backend](https://docs.exaloop.io/codon/interoperability/pyext). Codon also supports
  calling any Python module via its [Python interoperability](https://docs.exaloop.io/codon/interoperability/python).
  See also [*"Differences with Python"*](https://docs.exaloop.io/codon/general/differences) in the docs.

- :x: *New syntax and language constructs:* We try to avoid adding new syntax, keywords or other language
  features as much as possible. While Codon does add some new syntax in a couple places (e.g. to express
  parallelism), we try to make it as familiar and intuitive as possible.