Sam Tregar wrote:
>
> On Thu, 31 Aug 2000, David L. Nicol wrote:
>
> > We're talking about making a faster Perl. C's syntax requires enough
> > clarity to compile to something quick. it is a very short hop from
> > my dog $spot;
> > to
> > dog spot;
>
> What about the second version would result in faster execution? Do you
> think that the "$" slows down Perl? Is it that dropping the "my" would
> make "spot" global and thus faster? What are you getting at?
No, I imagine that dropping both the my and the $ would make spot a
fixed-size stacked lexical, as it does in C. A speed increase would
result from the code clarifier being able to resolve references to spot within
the current and enclosed blocks as a fixed offset from a known pointer rather
than five or six of those.
> Again: C doesn't get its speed from its syntax. Supporting C-esque syntax
> doesn't make Perl faster.
C syntax and Perl syntax are mostly compatible in what is not
a syntax error in the other.
A lot of code is in C.
Including it -- like,
#include "somecode.c"
has immense potential for re-use value.
Supporting C semantics -- fixed offsets from a stack pointer instead of
table lookups -- may very well make perl faster.
--
David Nicol 816.235.1187 [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Kansas City Perl Mongers will meet Sept. 20th at 7:00 in
Westport Flea Market Bar & Grill http://tipjar.com/kcpm
