Archive for April, 2010

What are the benefits of a tracing JIT?

Friday, April 23rd, 2010

Firefox uses a tracing JIT.  Adobe’s been using it for a while.  A Python interpreter uses tracing.  Microsoft is also researching its possibilities.  So what’s the big deal?

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What is the purpose of PyPy?

Wednesday, April 7th, 2010

PyPy is a Python interpreter written in Python.  It claims to be faster than CPython for certain benchmark tests.  How can Python — not particularly known for its speed — interpret Python source code faster than an interpreter written in C?  Also, an interpreter written in Python sounds like a neat exercise, but what’s the point of doing this?

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