Re: [VM] Tail recursion and multiple values

[Clinton Ebadi]

address@hidden (Ludovic Courtès) writes:

> Hello,
>
> Andy Wingo <address@hidden> writes:
>
>> The compiler is almost to the point that it can replace the interpreter,
>> semantically. What is needed is to read and compile toplevel definitions
>> one at a time, so we can e.g. change the reader, or the other dynamic
>> things that people expect. Then if that's the case, then we can just hit
>> the user with the one-time cost, for the long-term benefit.
>>
>> This would also allow us to move closer to having a single codepath,
>> which has its benefits, broader tail-recursion among them.
>
> Yes, that's a significant benefit.  But I think we can only afford it
> once the compiler is sufficiently fast.  IMO Guile targets short-lived
> programs (aka. "scripts") more than, say, Ikarus, which is why
> "compilation" (be it actual compilation or bare memoization) time
> matters.

Usually the scripts are still mostly static on disk--you only have to
compile automatically once per change to the source scheme file and so
if the script is ever used more than once there should be benefits (mmap
the .go and go!).

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