Re: A few questions about scripting

>
> through the VM for quick iteration, and if certain classes need to be
> compiled to machine code for that boost in speed near the end of a project
> we can compile it to C++ instead.  But in the end, what we do


C++ excels at speed because it allows you to write a strongly typed,
statically resolved solution to whatever problem you have. Script languages
excel at productivity because they let you iterate quickly using weakly
typed, dynamically resolved solutions.

I've always been very ambivalent-to-negative about this theory of compiling
scripts to C++. The reason is that the benefit from scripting languages is
often in their dynamism, duck-typing, late-binding etc. None of that is
"native" in C++, and if you compile C++ lines of code that just evaluate to
the VM byte codes, but still calls into the dynamic/reflective/hash-based
runtime, then the speed-up will be moderate at best.

I'd love to be proven wrong, though -- that would be a bit of a grail you
had there, then :-)

Sincerely,

jw


--
Americans might object: there is no way we would sacrifice our living
standards for the benefit of people in the rest of the world. Nevertheless,
whether we get there willingly or not, we shall soon have lower consumption
rates, because our present rates are unsustainable.

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