[Python-Dev] Re: native code compiler? (or, OCaml vs. Python) (original) (raw)

Guido van Rossum guido@python.org
Mon, 03 Feb 2003 14🔞14 -0500

Guido van Rossum wrote: > I'm in. Given how low you set your stakes, I don't think you're very > confident, so I'd like to call your bluff. :-)

Any opinion on where to spend effort? I was thinking of dusting off the register VM code (aka rattlesnake). OTOH, perhaps the non-local namespace optimizations would give more bang for the buck. Neil

I was thinking it might be most effective to have a little conversation with Dan's potential sponsors. But maybe that's because my first name is Guido... ;-)

Seriously, I expect Dan to lose without any effort on our part, but if we want to make an effort, I think that there could be some low-hanging fruit in inlining certain builtins (e.g. len, range, xrange) that as far as we know aren't shadowed by globals. Is that what you call non-local namespace optimizations? A new VM design would be a major upheaval, but if we can pull it off it would certainly not be a bad idea. John Aycock and some of his students have a design of a new VM that might be worth looking into.

--Guido van Rossum (home page: http://www.python.org/~guido/)