Merge in upstream MicroPython changes

[tannewt]

No description provided.

[theacodes]

A small bump on this, as it's something I'd really love to see happen.

Notable things that we'd get:

• Type annotations (PEP 526).
• Walrus assignment operator (PEP 572).
• Matrix multiplication @ operator (PEP 465).
• Underscored numeric literals (PEP 515).
• Support for dynamically loading native modules in mpy files.
• Numerous code size improvements.
• Significantly better native code emitter.

I don't presently have the time (or expertise) to do this myself, but I would be interested in sponsoring this.

[dhalbert]

I am willing to do this when I have time. We are thinking of waiting for the MicroPython 1.13 release.

[benetherington]

Bump from me too!

MicroPython 1.13 was released in September, and the walrus assignment operator is very handy for tidy code.

[timonsku]

+1 on this from me, being able to write native modules without needing to integrate with the core would be huge.

[timonsku]

See https://github.com/pimoroni/pimoroni-pico/tree/main/micropython/modules for a use case for this. This probably ties also into #2825

[deshipu]

@timonsku having been through the process of trying to use that, I have to say it's not as useful as it seems. The problem is that all the functions you are going to call have to be included in a special table at compile time — and only a handful is there by default — so while it's useful for speeding up some purely computational functions, it's very limited otherwise.

[tannewt]

I'm also very concerned about the support burden of native modules that work for ARM but not xtensa or risc-v for example. I'd encourage folks to write native modules in the core instead. We're happy to have them.

[garethhcoleman]

Is this separate issue still valuable alongside #4280?

[tannewt]

Is this separate issue still valuable alongside #4280?

Ya, I think so. Issues can live when inactive and PRs should be closed when they are. We can close this when the 1.14 merge is done.

[ladyada]

nice!