Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!bfmny0!tneff
From: tneff@bfmny0.BFM.COM (Tom Neff)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.perl
Subject: Re: can we ever compile perl?
Message-ID: <93725765@bfmny0.BFM.COM>
Date: 13 Dec 90 08:08:43 GMT
References: <9592:Dec920:40:5190@kramden.acf.nyu.edu> <110306@convex.convex.com> <1990Dec13.034336.21769@usenet@scion.CS.ORST.EDU>
Reply-To: tneff@bfmny0.BFM.COM (Tom Neff)
Lines: 22

I won't be at USENIX but here are my thoughts on compiled Perl:

 1. Even with limited functionality it would be a godsend.

 2. For many of us, it would be enough to be able to make fast-loadable
    "Perl object files," i.e., write all data structures to disk after
    compilation & before execution.  The resulting "compiled scripts"
    would run faster because the parsing pass would be eliminated.
    Especially wonderful with large scripts!

 3. A lot of the really troublesome 'eval' examples are hacks for the
    purpose of coaxing a little faster performance out of the interpreter.
    Presumably in exchange for the inherent speed of a compiled script
    you could give some of that up.

 4. If the Perl 'eval' compiler were put into a shared library, compiled
    scripts could run and have access to a single, reentrant copy of the
    evaluator if they need it.  Scripts themselves could stay small.

-- 
Anthrax Rampant in Kirghizia:    Oo*oO      Tom Neff
  Izvestia Comment -- TASS      * *O* *     tneff@bfmny0.BFM.COM