From: Daniel Carrera <dcarrera@...>
Date: 2003-02-27T12:31:09+09:00
Subject: Re: Ruby Compile-time optimization

> > I realize that the fact that Ruby is a more dynamic language makes 
> > optimization more difficult, but I really think that we should look into 
> > it.
> 
> If you poke around in the mailing lists, you'll find it has been brought
> up before.  In short, Fixnum#+ may be redefined at any time, so
> constant folding won't work.

Yes, I realize that.  That's the kind of problem that I referred to when I 
said that Ruby was dynamic.  I think that we should try to find a way to 
optimize Ruby code.  For instance, here are two ideas for implementing 
constant folding:

1)  Create a "Constant" class whose "+" operator cannot be overloaded and 
whose value cannot be changed.
2)  Give Ruby a '-O' option that does constant folding and raises an error 
if you either change the value of a constant or overload Fixnum#+.

I'm not saying that these are *good* ideas.  What I'm saying is that we 
might be able to come up with something.  Idea (2) is not too 
unreasonable.

-- 
Daniel Carrera
Graduate Teaching Assistant.  Math Dept.
University of Maryland.  (301) 405-5137