3 ms·

In every argument about dynamic language performance for the last 15 years, Self has been the final word: "If Self can reach 1/4 to 1/2 the speed of native C co

by ekidd 16y ago

In every argument about dynamic language performance for the last 15 years, Self has been the final word: "If Self can reach 1/4 to 1/2 the speed of native C code, why can't JavaScript? Why can't Ruby?" Well, JavaScript and Lua are slowly getting there, and Ruby might in a few more years. Even if Self could only reach that level of performance occasionally, it has been an inspiration to many others. It's great to hear that an old and storied project has been released as open source. The best of luck to them, and I look forward to reading their compiler source code some day!

chrisbroadfoot 16y ago
I'm actually surprised JS has made it this far. I'm not convinced it will go much further, though. Can someone convince me, please? :)
- apl 16y ago
  I'll try. At some point in the past, you predicted (possibly implicitly, given that we're dealing with "surprise") that JS wouldn't reach the performance it has today. But it evidently did. So you're not very good at predicting the development JavaScript's performance profile. Currently you believe it can't go much further. Hence, given the historical precedent that we have, it probably will. There you go.
  - epo 16y ago
    What makes you think he was talking about Javascript's performance?
    - apl 16y ago
      Context? Besides, my argument doesn't really depend on whether you put "performance" or "popularity." Also, I was joking.
  - allertonm 16y ago
    Nicely done!
  - chrisbroadfoot 16y ago
    LOL! You make a compelling argument. It would be nice if the v8/spidermonkey/etc teams gave some insight into what kind of optimisations they have made/are making.
dtf 16y ago
Not just for inspiration, but for implementation too! Self's non-intuitive map optimisation has found its way into V8 and the latest PyPy: http://morepypy.blogspot.com/2010/11/efficiently-implementing-python-objects.html http://morepypy.blogspot.com/2010/11/efficiently-implementin...

by ekidd 16y ago

chrisbroadfoot 16y ago

I'm actually surprised JS has made it this far. I'm not convinced it will go much further, though. Can someone convince me, please? :)

apl 16y ago
I'll try. At some point in the past, you predicted (possibly implicitly, given that we're dealing with "surprise") that JS wouldn't reach the performance it has today. But it evidently did. So you're not very good at predicting the development JavaScript's performance profile. Currently you believe it can't go much further. Hence, given the historical precedent that we have, it probably will. There you go.
- epo 16y ago
  What makes you think he was talking about Javascript's performance?
  - apl 16y ago
    Context? Besides, my argument doesn't really depend on whether you put "performance" or "popularity." Also, I was joking.
- allertonm 16y ago
  Nicely done!
- chrisbroadfoot 16y ago
  LOL! You make a compelling argument. It would be nice if the v8/spidermonkey/etc teams gave some insight into what kind of optimisations they have made/are making.

dtf 16y ago

Not just for inspiration, but for implementation too! Self's non-intuitive map optimisation has found its way into V8 and the latest PyPy: http://morepypy.blogspot.com/2010/11/efficiently-implementing-python-objects.html http://morepypy.blogspot.com/2010/11/efficiently-implementin...