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

Dan Sugalski dan@sidhe.org
Thu, 30 Jan 2003 19:52:58 -0500

At 7:36 PM -0500 1/30/03, Tim Peters wrote:

[Graham Guttocks]

I see. Again, I didn't realize the enormity of this, because of how fast Psycho has progressed (from a part-time volunteer). Not any part-time volunteer. Armin did Psycho while finishing his doctoral dissertation, and applied a brain the size of a planet to the job, with passion. That's the way intriguing compilers for dynamic languages get written in the absence of realistic funding (Dan notwithstanding ).

Heh. I still need to finish, and while I'm not sure I have any planet-sized brains to bring to bear, I do now have defense of an ego the size of a planet, which may suffice. :)

For a recent idea of what "realistic funding" means, dig thru now-old but not-yet-ancient stories about Sun's efforts on Java JIT technology.

Java is something of a special case. The task of optimizing JVM code is fairly non-trivial just given how much information is thrown out by the compiler. (Stack-based intermediate targets are suboptimal when you're looking to then transform to a register based target such as hardware unless a lot of notation goes along with it which, alas, isn't generally the case with JVM code)

                                     Dan

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