> Perhaps the most significant is improved compiler performance with a new Abstract Syntax Tree (AST) class reader in place of using class loading tricks. The G

> Perhaps the most significant is improved compiler performance with a new Abstract Syntax Tree (AST) class reader in place of using class loading tricks. The Groovy compiler starts by compiling scripts to a Concrete Syntax Tree (CST) Rather than talking so much about AST improvements, perhaps these Groovy developers should explain why the process for compiling to the CST still uses the Antlr 2.x lexer/parser which hasn't been worked on since 2005, and both Antlr 3 and Antlr 4 have long since arrived in the meantime. When they got a Google SoC student to attempt an upgrade to Antlr 4 in 2011 and another one last year, they both failed, and Groovy didn't get any SoC students this year despite Scala, Clojure, and JRuby getting plenty each.