'''Tcl Static Prime''' (TSP) is an experimental compiler for the Tcl language that produces C or Java code, which is then compiled on-the-fly during execution of a Tcl program. TSP is a currently a work-in-progress; its performance varies greatly depending the Tcl commands that are currently compiled. TSP compiles a typed subset of Tcl. Proc definitions and variables are typed by comment-based annotations. Native types supported are boolean, int (64-bit integers), double, string, and var (TclObjects for lists, dicts, etc.) TSP language restrictions include restricting all arithmetic expressions (expr, if, while, etc) to using boolean, int, double, and string data types. Additionally, expressions may not include array references or nested commands. TSP also assumes that builtin Tcl commands are not re-defined, as builtin commands are compiled to C or Java, or the native command implementation is invoked directly, bypassing the Tcl interpreter. TSP is written entirely in Tcl, with support libraries written in C and Java. TSP is written by Tom Poindexter ([TP]). '''TSP development is hosted at Github:''' https://github.com/tpoindex/tsp ---- ''Very, very, very'' preliminary results (July, 2015) Timing on my local machine, 3.0ghz i7. '''md5''' - This is a slightly modified version of the md5 function included in [Tcllib], version 1.4.4. Various size message are tested. Times are in seconds. Timings for both C/Tcl and JTcl. %|msg size: |---32 bytes--- |---4k bytes--- |--64k bytes--- |--256k bytes--|% |tcl 8.6.3 | 0.0003683 | 0.0239789 | 0.3650953 | 1.4585577| |jtcl 2.8.0 | 0.0008000 | 0.0339000 | 0.5122000 | 2.0477000| |tcl + tsp | 0.0000532 | 0.0001546 | 0.0020362 | 0.0072202| |jtcl + tsp | 0.0000000 | 0.0004000 | 0.0058000 | 0.0128000| '''langbench''' - Larry McVoy's langbench, using slightly modified versions of the Tcl programs found in the benchmark. Several other notable https://github.com/tpoindex/tsp/blob/master/bench/langbench/README.tsp%|%changes to how the benchmark was prepared and run should be reviewed%|%. Times are in seconds. %|lang |cat |grep |hash |loop |proc |fib |sort |wc|% |tcl 8.6.3 |1.34 |2.77 |1.25 |0.03 |0.36 |3.73 |2.44 |20.03| |tcl + tsp |0.80 |2.63 |0.94 |0.00 |0.13 |0.57 |2.00 |28.25| ---- Notes - I've been working on this off and on for over two years, and thought it was about time TSP escaped out of the lab. TSP currently has about 9,700 lines of Tcl, 2,400 lines of C, and 750 lines of Java. All of my development has been on Linux, but since it's nearly all written in Tcl, there should be some degree of portability to OSX & Windows. I haven't been able to find much time lately to work on it, so I'm hoping posting it now will spur some interest in others who might like to help out, test new ideas, work on code generation, etc. Interested in contributing? Start by forking the Github repository. I'm often logged into the [Tcl Chatroom] most weekdays for quick questions, or feel free to email. ---- [aspect]: this is fantastic! I made a little chart with [ukaz] using the `test_fib` example to get my feet wet. I stopped benchmarking each when a computation took more than 1s: interpreted got fib(31) = 1346269, compiled to fib(36) = 14930352. [tsp-fib-benchmark.png] Reading the implementation is going to be a lot of fun! The benchmark script is hidden below this discussion tag, in the unlikely case it's useful to derive more: <> ====== package require tsp package require ukaz tsp::proc tsp_fib {n} { #tsp::procdef int -args int if {$n < 2} { return $n } #tsp::int n1 n2 incr n -1 set n1 [tsp_fib $n] incr n -1 set n2 [tsp_fib $n] set n [expr {$n1 + $n2}] return $n } proc fib {n} { if {$n < 2} { return $n } incr n -1 set n1 [fib $n] incr n -1 set n2 [fib $n] set n [expr {$n1 + $n2}] return $n } proc elapsed {cmd} { set s -[clock microseconds] uplevel 1 $cmd incr s [clock microseconds] set s [expr {$s / 1e6}] return $s } set ctimes {0 0} set itimes {0 0} set maxtime 1 ;# stop measuring once an iteration takes this long set cok 1 set iok 1 pack [ukaz::graph .l] -expand yes -fill both set cg [.l plot $ctimes with lines color red title "Compiled fib"] set ig [.l plot $itimes with lines color blue title "Interpreted fib"] .l set xlabel "N" .l set ylabel "Seconds" for {set i 1} {$i < Inf} {incr i} { if {$cok} { set ctime [elapsed {set cr [tsp_fib $i]}] .l update $cg data [lappend ctimes $i $ctime] set cok [expr {$ctime < $maxtime}] update } if {$iok} { set itime [elapsed {set ir [fib $i]}] .l update $ig data [lappend itimes $i $itime] set iok [expr {$itime < $maxtime}] update } if {!($cok || $iok)} {break} if {($cok && $iok)} { if {$cr ne $ir} { puts "ERROR: results differ for $i ($cr vs $ir)" break } } } ====== ---- '''[ak] - 2015-07-28 18:54:43''' Discussion on HN: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9962806 ---- '''MiR 2022-04-28''' Great tool! I got this up and running under TCL 8.6.6 using tcc4tcl last night and it seems to work after patching tcc4tcl and TSP. Just one thing made me puzzle: I had to comment out the usage of TCL_PushCallframe/TCL_PopCallFrame, since these are internals I don't want to use... and I don't know if this workaround has any side effects on variables (esp. namespace and upvar things)... I tested some of the benchmark procs (md5, cat, loop, hash, fib), worked. Update: Meanwhile 'I was able to get tclInt.h up and running under tcc (wich meant to cripple winsock2), patched tclIntStubsptr into tcc4tcl, add the stublibs to tcc (but converted to elf without underscore) and thus was able to get Push/PopCallframe back running. Had to patch some parts of TSP, esp. string comparison, wich did expect TCL_DString, but got char* from tsp. I'm not a coder by profession, so I wonder if and how to contribute part of the patches back into TSP/TCC4TCL. I think this combination has great potential, if you don't want to compile whole apps, but only bottleneck-routines. Thank you a lot [TP]! <>Tcl Implementations | Performance | Java | Parsing