Hello, Jordan.
The principle of supercompilation is applicable to any programming language. And yes,
in the last analysis, the goal is to speed-up a given program. But due to speed-up we
often
can allow programming styles which, without supercompilation, entail the loss of
efficiency
which we could not afford. I speak, in the first place, of interpreters of various
kinds which
a supercompiler converts, once the interpreted text is given, into an efficient
compiled program, thus working as a universal compiler. Years ago I wrote in Refal
an interpreter of a subset of Pascal which after supercompilation worked 40 times
faster.
With interpretation of regular expressions, prominent in Perl, the speed-up is, if I
remember
correctly, something like 15. With a neatly written program without parts given
beforehand
there will be no speed-up at all.
You can use supercompilation with Perl in two ways.
(1) Write an interpreter of Perl in Refal and use it with the existing supercompiler
SCP4
(written by myself and Andrei Nemytykh). As I said above, the goal is double: speed-up
and possible invention of new ways of programming in Perl -- with heavy
interpretation.
(2) Write a new supercompiler in the language of your choice. The same goals.
Andrei Klimov and Andrei Nemytykh may write you with more detail.
Regards.
Valentin Turchin
-----Original Message-----
From: Jordan Dimov <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: Valentin Turchin <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; Helmut Enck-Radana
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; John Porter <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; Simon Cozens
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: Monday, August 06, 2001 06:08 PM
Subject: Re: Supercompiled Perl
>
> Valentin,
>
> Could you please write a short message to this list explaining what
>benefits you see in a Perl supercompiler? Is it just a speed isue? Why
>do you think Perl is suitable for the type of transformations that you
>have studied?
>
> Thank you very much!
>
> -- Jordan
>
>On Mon, 6 Aug 2001, Valentin Turchin wrote:
>
>> Dear Helmut,
>>
>> Thanks a lot for your letter. Writing a supercompiler for PERL is a very good
>idea.
>> Should anybody embark on it, we in the Refal group will gladly share our
>experience.
>>
>> Best wishes.
>>
>> Valentin Turchin
>>
>>
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Helmut Enck-Radana <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>> Cc: Jordan Dimov <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; John Porter <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; Simon Cozens
><[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>> Date: Saturday, August 04, 2001 02:46 PM
>> Subject: Re: Supercompiled Perl
>>
>>
>> >John Porter wrote:
>> >>Jordan Dimov wrote:
>> >>>Turchin has founded a start up (www.supercompilers.com) with the purpose
>> >>>of developing a supercompiler for Java, speeding up Java code by a factor
>> >>>of 100.
>> >>
>> >>The culture of Java encourages fantastic hyperbole.
>> >
>> >Simon Cozens wrote:
>> >>Jordan Dimov wrote:
>> >>>Is anyone here familiar with the concept of supercompilation, as
>> >>>described by prof. Valentin Turchin in [1] for example?
>> >>>[...]
>> >>>[1] ``The Concept of a Supercompiler'', Valenting F. Turchin, ACM Trans.
>> >>>Program. Lang. Syst. 8, 3 (Jul 1986), pp. 292-325
>> >>
>> >>I've read this.
>> >>[...]
>> >>This isn't anything new, since most compilers do this anyway.
>> >
>> >This must be a misunderstanding. As far as I understand modern
>> >supercompilers are capable of transforming an interpreter into a compiler.
>> >This seems to be just too revolutionary for most people to believe. The
>> >speed-up factor of course depends on the kind of application. More
>> >important is the idea to allow writing programs on a level of abstraction
>> >which was not possible so far. Obviously there must be some hindrances for
>> >the wide-spread use of this technology. Possibly the publicly available
>> >tools only work on some advanced programming languages which aren't
>> >understood by a lot of programmers, and may be they aren't very easy to
>> >apply in ordinary practise.
>> >
>> >There are quite a few papers about the subject, some of which can be found
>> >here:
>> >http://citeseer.nj.nec.com/cs?q=supercompiler&submit=Search+Documents&am=50
>> >http://www.refal.com/english/s_compil.htm (home of supercompilation with
>> >Refal, online examples)
>> >http://www.diku.dk/topps/bibliography/bibl-aut.html (search for
>> >/supercompil(er)|(ation)/ yields lots of hits)
>> >http://www.diku.dk/users/rambo/publications.html (Master's Thesis with
>> >detailed remarks about history)
>> >http://www.dina.dk/~jesper/PEsummerschool/ (educational implementation &
>> >tutorial)
>> >http://www.dina.kvl.dk/~jesper/CASE/ (educational implementation, examples)
>> >
>> >>>Is Perl suitable for this kind of program transformation?
>> >>
>> >>Of course.
>> >
>> >Jordan, possibly this wasn't the best mailing list to ask questions about
>> >that subject. You could have more luck when you direct them to the Refal
>> >mailing list:
>> >
>> >mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>> >
>> >The archive can be browsed here:
>> >
>> >http://www.botik.ru/mail-archive/refal/
>> >
>> >(Most messages are in Russian, but questions which are posted in English
>> >are also replied to in English. Also some of the Russian messages are
>> >nearly understandable after applying online-translation. Watch out not to
>> >execute the attachment Microsoft_Word__3_.doc.bat.)
>> >
>> >-- Helmut
>> >
>> >(BCCed to Valentin F. Turchin, Andrei V. Klimov, Andrei P. Nemytykh)
>> >
>> >
>> >________________________________
>> >
>> >Helmut Enck-Radana
>> >Paradigma Software GmbH
>> >http://www.paradigma-software.de
>> >________________________________
>> >
>> >
>>
>
>
