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Mike Pall wrote: [...]
Well, I've thought about something like an '-Obuiltin' option. This would pin down all built-in library functions at compile time. Ok, so monkey patching would no longer give the expected results (you can still do math.sin = math.random, but it's ignored).
It might be nice to be able to specify this as a per-function or per-source-file hint, so that you can use it to speed up specific bottlenecks while retaining traditional Lua semantics elsewhere. This would, for example, be particularly useful on pure number-crunching code, like the core of a ray-tracer or 3D engine.
(Also, I am very satisfied to discover that 'monkey patching' is an accepted industrial term with it's own Wikipedia page. Also known as 'duck punching', apparently. I approve of this.)
[...]
In terms of Lua 5.1 bytecode this would replace GETGLOBAL+GETTABLE* with a single LOADK. This ought to be *really* fast, both in the interpreter and when compiled.
For simple numerical stuff like trig functions, would the JIT manage to then convert them to inline code sequences where appropriate? For example, math.sin could theoretically become a single inline fsin instruction in the right circumstances. Or will it still bounce it via an external C function?
-- David Given dg@cowlark.com