Re: Google Chrome & the V8 Javascript engine

[Chris <coderight@...>]

On Wed, Sep 3, 2008 at 2:28 PM, Mike Pall <mikelu-0809@mike.de> wrote:
> This would be highly surprising. I've got no access to my
> benchmarking machine right now or I'd run the benchmarks myself.
> You've probably forgot to run LuaJIT with -O. And the "old"
> shootout benchmarks use completely naive and untuned Lua code.

Ah, you may be right as I rarely use the "-O" option since it requires
installing extra "stuff" (versus a standalone executable).  :)  I
quickly retested a couple scripts and yes indeed LuaJIT (-O) appears
to be faster or about the time speed as the V8 tests.

I haven't run extensive benchmarks either, just a few quick tests and
there aren't that many finished Javascript scripts on the shootout
page.  It would be interesting if someone did a more thorough
investigation.

I find this subject exciting because Lua and Javascript feel like
twins to me.  The syntax is different but the basic idea is very
similar.  Except the base of Javascript developers is huge.  For a
long time I have said that it would be incredibly hard or impossible
to make a lean fast Javascript VM due to all the language cruft (I
define "fast" as faster than Lua).  If someone manages to pull it off
I will be impressed.

CR