Re: [Cardinal-dev] RubyInRuby parser/compiler

[Anders Bengtsson]

Dan Sugalski wrote:

> >Don't know about constant folding...
[---]

> This is a common optimization in more static languages, such as C, 
> but may not be valid for Ruby.

In general it isn't valid, but in most specific cases in Ruby it
actually is. Most of the time '+' hasn't been changed.

If the runtime system keeps track of which methods are changed and which
are not, it can do a lot of constant folding and other optimizations. It
just has to keep the non-optimized alternative available too, in case
something changes. The Self language took this to extremes and got very
good performance from a purely dynamic language.

/Anders

-- 

A n d e r s  B e n g t s s o n  |  address@hidden
Stockholm, Sweden               |

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