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

[Fredrik Lundh]

Dan Sugalski wrote:

> Ignoring parrot, I'll point you at some of the Scheme and Smalltalk
> setups.  (And you'd be hard-pressed to find something to beat smalltalk
> for runtime dynamism)

Not on python-dev.

> If you want to bet

Just show me the code.

> I'll put up $10 and a round of beer (or other 
> beverage of your choice) at OSCON 2004 for all the python labs & zope 
> folks that says parrot beats the current python interpreter when 
> running all the python benchmark suite programs (that don't depend on 
> extensions written in C, since we're shooting for pure engine 
> performance) from bytecode. Game?

If you're talking about simple stuff like pystone, people have
already done *interpreters* that can run that kind of bench-
mark 5-25 times faster than CPython.  All it takes is a fast
GC, call-site caching, some low-overhead primitives, and a
fast calling mechanism.

But if you want to run real Python programs, you still have to
solve all the hard problems.  Judging from the Parrot material
I've seen, it's not obvious that you're even aware of what they
are.  After all, if you know how to solve them, wouldn't it be
easier to tell us what you've done (or plan to do), instead of
pointing to non-Parrot implementations of non-Python languages
done by others?

But let's hope I'm wrong.  The only way to *prove* me wrong
is to ship the code.

</F>