Re: Dynamic Typing Efficiency

clearm@comcast.net wrote:
> I am writing a small, python-like scripting language that uses dynamic
> typing. I am also writing a stack-based virtual machine to go with
> it.
>
> I have read many papers and posts about improving the efficiency of
> VMs - for example by using threaded dispatch instead of switch
> statements.
>
> The problem I have is that dynamic typing seems to be extremely
> inefficient when you have a large number of types. For example, if I
> have integers, doubles, strings, booleans, and various compound types,
> then an ADD instruction would have to look like this:
>
> [snip]


You should have a look at all the work done around SmartEiffell
optimization and especially this paper : "Efficient Dynamic Dispatch
without Virtual Function Tables. The SmallEiffel Compiler."


http://smarteiffel.loria.fr/papers/papers.html#OOPSLA97


--
Yermat

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