Re: Optimising Elisp code [again]

[Barry Margolin]

In article <86ftxfm98q.fsf@zoho.com>, Emanuel Berg <moasen@zoho.com> 
wrote:

> Garreau, Alexandre wrote:
> 
> > Btw, what would it change to make emacs
> > hosted by gcl
> 
> I mean, compile the Lisp that isn't user
> defined and unlikely to change - compile for
> real, not byte-compile for
> sped-up interpretation.
> 
> I.e.: fun-and-play Elisp on the top
>       compiled Elisp in the middle
>       C downmost
> 
> ?

The Elisp interpreter is probably tightly intertwined with the Emacs 
editor code. Disentangling them so you can compile Elisp to machine code 
would be a big project, and probably not worth it.

Byte-code interpretation is common in many modern languages, it makes it 
easier for the languages to be portable. Python and PHP both compile to 
byte code rather than machine code. It's generally fast enough for 
interactive applications. For computationally-intensive applications, 
there are often libraries that can be linked in, like Numpy for Python.

-- 
Barry Margolin, barmar@alum.mit.edu
Arlington, MA
*** PLEASE post questions in newsgroups, not directly to me ***