Re: The compilation approach in modern languages

Ivan Boldyrev <boldyrev@cgitftp.uiggm.nsc.ru> writes:
>> [Well, sure. Lots of languages can compile at runtime. -John]
...
>Perhaps, (Common) Lisp/Scheme is different from them because
>COMPILE-FILE is *standard* function.


Hmm, COMPILE-FILE is not quite what I consider compilation at
run-time. Even in C I can do system("cc ..."); ok, some people have
used that in combination with dlopen/dlsym to achieve a kind of
run-time compilation, but it is relatively cumbersome.


What I am thinking of when I hear Lisp and run-time compilation are
things like macros and back-quote.


Other languages have similar features, and in the standard: In Forth,
"COMPILE,", "POSTPONE" and "LITERAL" are standard words. Prolog has
assert.


etc.


- anton
--
M. Anton Ertl
anton@mips.complang.tuwien.ac.at
http://www.complang.tuwien.ac.at/anton/home.html

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