
The Interpretive Advantage [video] - chrispsn
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-6no6N3i9Tg
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carapace
"Dyalog '18: The Interpretive Advantage"

> Common wisdom is that compiled languages are faster, full stop. However, by
> testing data for common patterns at runtime, Dyalog can sometimes perform
> ordinary programming tasks many times faster than well-optimised C. Marshall
> explains some of the ways in which Dyalog allows a programmer to get the
> best performance of several different implementations while writing just
> one, and discusses how deferred execution might make this method even more
> powerful in the future.

(Why omit the most distinguishing part of the title!?)

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justicezyx
This clearly can happen.

If we throw away all the usual abstraction constructs, and model a program as
a way to instruct the machine to perform certain actions. Then there is a huge
spectrum of available tools to realize this program.

As often the case, such problem is computationally intractable. Then all sorts
of different approaches: static vs. dynamic typing, compiled vs. interpreted,
different flavors of languages features, etc. can all affect the end results.
Then it's entirely possible that a static language like C is not close enough
to the optimal result, such that a different approach can be faster. It
happens to be an interpreted language in this case.

