RustPython: A Python Interpreter Written in Rust

I don't understand how it's possible that we just randomly come across a project that just casually implements a Python interpreter in Rust. Don't these things take a massive amount of effort? Wouldn't this be making waves much earlier in its development process?

I feel the same way about Ruff, for example. One day it was "black all the things" and the next it's "btw we just reimplemented the entire Python formatting/linting ecosystem in Rust, and it's 100x faster, no biggie".

What's happening? Is it just so much easier to write stuff in Rust that projects like these pop out of people's heads, fully-formed? It boggles the mind.

> Don't these things take a massive amount of effort?

Yes, RustPython has been in development since at least 2018.

> Wouldn't this be making waves much earlier in its development process?

It's been posted on HN several times before: https://hn.algolia.com/?q=rustpython

Ah ok, it's at least comforting to know that I missed it, rather than there are superhuman developers that crank these projects out in an afternoon.

I've had some fun converting some of my Python scripts into Rust and it's really not that difficult with the help of modern tools once you wrap your head around Rust. Python is too huge to crank out in an afternoon, for sure, but on the human level, the translation from python to something compiled is a well trod path.

The one time cost of learning borrow rules and traits is steep, but the lifetime savings of cargo vs PIP probably hits break even after a few months.