From: Michael Neumann <mneumann@...>
Date: 2004-06-18T18:29:32+09:00
Subject: Re: the new great computer language shootout

On Fri, Jun 18, 2004 at 05:56:30PM +0900, Mauricio Fernndez wrote:
> On Fri, Jun 18, 2004 at 05:38:20PM +0900, Michael Neumann wrote:
> > > Psyco does some great things for the performance of certain
> > > algorithms, but it's not part of the core Python distribution for any
> > > number of reasons: only works on x86, breaks several standard
> > > introspection and debugging libraries, and perhaps most importantly,
> > > prevents redefinition of methods at runtime on optimized objects.
> > 
> > Hmm, if we'd had namespace selectors in Ruby, such optimizations (e.g.
> > optimizing integer/floating point operations) would become possible, at
> > least theoretically, without breaking code or loosing introspection at
> 
> They are actually possible with the current language; you'd "only"
> need a code specializer + careful code cache invalidation (take a look
> at the Self papers).

Hm, but isn't that much harder to implement? And you need all these
tests at runtime (well, should be no performance penalty).

For example:

  a = 1
  a += 2

This piece of code would become invalid, when the Integer#+ method is
redefined.

Hm, indeed, doesn't look imposible for me. What are the advantages (of
both)?

Regards,

  Michael