On Mon, 12 Feb 2001 16:13:10 +0000, Simon Cozens <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>How much can we do in the compiler, and how much can we do in the
>interpreter? If we're having cached bytecode, it makes sense to do
>as much optimization as we can in the compiler. If not, we might
>as well brute force things to conserve compilation time. Or should
>this be user-selectable with "use less"?
>
>I'm still thinking about things like type inferencing to reduce the
>number of conversions that need to be done at runtime.
I guess it depends on how the bytecode is being used. I know that the JIT
backend guys typically *don't* want the fronends to optimize too heavily
because that increases the number of patterns dramatically that they have
to optimize in the JIT phase again. If the bytecode is already
specialized for a target environment then having all optimizations in the
compile phase might make sense.
Another thing to keep in mind: It might debugging easier if you optionally
have access to the unoptimized bytecode at runtime. The same goes for
generating error messages (what again is the name of the variable that
isn't initialized here?).
-Jan
