Re: Intrinsicaly fast/slow languages (WAS: Unsafe Optimizations)

In article <1990Jun15.172211.3257@esegue.segue.boston.ma.us>
pardo@june.cs.washington.edu (David Keppel) writes:


> >All LISP programs are not compilable since some are self-modifying
>
> ...I can write an equivalent program in FORTRAN, and that the FORTRAN
> program can be compiled statically. The FORTRAN program will, of course,
> have all of the ``hidden'' LISP list operations...


I agree with most everything you say, but the original point was intrinsic
efficiency. You can always be the compiler yourself, and translate a LISP
program to FORTRAN by hand, but as you say, all the original overhead will
still be there---it's just more obvious. The real question is whether you'd
be better off writing a good FORTRAN program to begin with rather than
a bad LISP program. [Real programmers can write LISP in any language :-)].


-Allen Holub
  holub@violet.berkeley.edu
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