[MJ] - 20071105, Sparked by an inquiry by [Larry McVoy] on the [Tcl chatroom], the IO performance of Tcl and specifically compared to [Perl] has been benchmarked quite extensively and was shown to be slower than [Perl]. In order to get closer to the speed of Perl the IO implementation in Tcl is currently undergoing scrutiny to see where performance gains can be made.

The goal of the page is to summarize the discussion as it has been held up to this point, solutions that have been suggested and patches that have been tried. This should prevent circular discussions on the chat, because people can be directed to this page to get an update of the current state of affairs.

The benchmarks used to time the effect of changes can be downloaded from [http://www.bitmover.com/lm/langbench.shar]

[JE] - 20071105.  In particular, it's important to note that the point of the exercise is not to make a "fast cat" in Tcl
or to make a "fast grep" in Tcl: these are both easily doable.  The point of the exercise is to find where the real bottlenecks are
in real text processing filters, and to make those hotspots cooler.