Newsgroups: comp.lang.lisp
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Subject: Re: For Sale: Explorer Lisp Machines
References: <GTN.94Dec11070257@ebt-inc.ebt.com> <8sc7wc1w165w@sytex.com>
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Date: Mon, 12 Dec 1994 21:25:16 +0000
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In article <8sc7wc1w165w@sytex.com> smcl@sytex.com "Scott McLoughlin" writes:

>         Well, numbers turned up yesterday from an 
> unlikely source.  Steve Heller in Dec. "PC Techniques"
> provides various comparisons between threaded code and
> native "C" on a 486. The example is limited to a few
> arithmetic instructions, but indeed the threaded code
> seems to best C in some cases.

I assume you mean the threaded code technique used in languages such
as Forth? I believe that the Actor language used threaded code. I'd
be interested to know if any Lisp systems have been implemented this
way, and for which processors.

>         NOT that besting C is a sole goal, but it is
> encouragement to implementing threaded VM style language
> implementations IMHO.

It could be useful, if C is used as a performance "standard" for
judging code quality etc. Actor has been criticised for the low
speed of code compared to native code compilers such as C, which
strikes me as odd. It would have made more sense to compare it
with implemantations of Smalltalk for the same platform.

I only very recently found a native code Forth compiler, so now I can
compare the performance of code produced by it and the two C compilers
available to me. However, such comparisons ignore the biggest (and to
me more significent) difference, which is that Forth is usually an
interactive incremental system. C usually isn't, and I've never used
an interactive incremental C compiler.

Martin Rodgers
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