CPython

What happens when you run Python Code

Heres the flow:

• You download python
• But you are actually downloading 3 things
  • the cpython compiler
  • the cpython virtual machine (just a C program)
  • the python library
• You write python code
• you run python3 my_python_file.py on your command line
• the cpython compiler compiles your python code to bytecode
• and saves the bytecode to a file called my_python_file.pyc
• the cpython virtual machine then interprets the my_python_file.pyc file line by line

the bytecode interpreter is a loop that goes round and iterates over the file until there are no more commands to execute.

pretty neat!