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Just when you thought it was safe ... [was Re: Bytecodes: vm & compiler for guile3]

   Date: Fri, 19 Dec 1997 12:42:46 -0500
   From: Jim Blandy <jimb@red-bean.com>
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   Cc: guile@cygnus.com, Laurent.Peron@emi.u-bordeaux.fr
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	   <199708070709.JAA09552@harold.emi.u-bordeaux.fr>
	   <199712112216.XAA03746@faui01i.informatik.uni-erlangen.de>
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   Aubrey argues that bytecode engines have no speed advantage over
   SCM-like systems.  I disagree, but that is only my intuition; as far
   as I know, the facts at present are on Aubrey's side.  But I believe
   that this is because nobody has put as much time into a bytecode
   engine as Aubrey has into SCM.  This is an opportunity to change
   that.

Radey Shouman has written a patch for scm/eval.c which nets 10-15%
speed improvement in early tests.  I have worked out an unrelated
improvement which may increase speed 30%.  I can't mess with
interpreter/GC debugging right now; look for these developments in
January.