Re: Making Guile slower?

[Clark McGrew <mcgrew at ale dot physics dot sunysb dot edu>]

Hi,

    Mikael> The idea I wanted to express here is that if you
    Mikael> repeatedly make small changes increasing evaluation time
    Mikael> by 5%, say, it won't be long before you have a big effect
    Mikael> on the total.  Therefore, it is my personal opinion that
    Mikael> every change influencing performance should have a really
    Mikael> strong motivation, and be made with knowledge of the
    Mikael> effects.

This one change isn't worth a major battle, but I hope that the gurus
don't forget that speed is *extremely* important.  Loosing a percent
here and there may not seem like a big deal, but it addes up quickly.
If the source ends up as a masterpiece of readiblity, but it's slow
then guile isn't going to be very useful.  

Guile development is not democracy, but I have to vote with Mikael.  I
hope that major structural changes like this are thought about very
carefully and are only made if they fix a major problem.  One of
guile's strengths has been that it's quite fast for an interpreter.  I
know that people often say "Get a faster computer", but that's a cop
out.

Thanks,

Clark