I’m still unsure I understand the source of excitement. As far as I know Python even in its latest version is still at least an order of magnitude slower than native compiled code. It would seem to me that a native Python compiler would benefit server side Python applications much more than these incremental speed improvements of the interpreter. Is there any work being done by the Python community in that direction? For CPU bound workloads Python needs 10-100x improvement in order to be competitive.
Note, that I’m not dumping on Python. I use it daily but I think it’s likely a poor choice for apps that primarily tax the CPU.
There have been a bunch of attempts to produce compiled code for Python, but each have fallen short in different ways. However there is a serious bit of effort going into speeding up CPython now. I don’t think it’ll result in turning it into an optimising compiler that produces a binary executable as output or even an interpreter w/ JIT compiler, but I think there are still gains to be made without committing to either of those routes
Lots of people have already written programs in Python. Now their programs will run a little faster without any work. It’s like the barista saying, “coffee’s on me today.”
I don't think that's ever been a goal of Python, and it's not what people use (or should use) Python for.
Making Python faster is great because it improves every existing use case for Python, not because it now makes Python a good choice for situations where it wasn't previously a good choice.
Note, that I’m not dumping on Python. I use it daily but I think it’s likely a poor choice for apps that primarily tax the CPU.