HP_PRIME PYTHON SYNTAX: HP_PPY

[parisse]

It's not Python, it's Python syntax compatibility inside CAS. I wrote a pre-parser that translates Python-like indentation to CAS blocs: def/for/while/if/else -> function/for/while/if/else
There are differences with true Python: only basic Python syntax is supported (no class or generators for example), string delimiters must be " (' keeps the same meaning that in normal CAS programs), there is no module import, but you have access to all CAS commands. It is recommended to declare local variables, the current implementation of the pre-parser will leave undeclared variables as global. List indexes follow HP convention on the Prime (start at 1). The programming editor of the Prime does not support this syntax, therefore it's not easy to program on the calc with Python syntax.
The interpreter behind is the CAS interpreter, therefore it should run at the same speed, and this is in general slower than the Home interpreter, there is a price to pay for more types (exact types, symbolic expressions, but also functions that can be passed as arguments to functions). There are a few optimizations in the CAS interpreter in this beta version, they will work if the variables used in the loops are local variables (and loops are a little faster if they contain only 1 instruction), another reason to declare local variables with the local keyword (something that you can not do in Python).