[squeak-dev] Re: Cosmetic: move or remove a few temps inside closures

Andreas Raab andreas.raab at gmx.de
Mon Dec 28 19:04:56 UTC 2009


Nicolas Cellier wrote:
> Concerning speed, thanks for providing the tiny benchmarks Juan.
> I would not even try a macro benchmark because the changes won't be
> noticeable until Cog.
> But you have to believe Eliot, that will be worth a massive change. In
> Objectworks/Visualworks that were worth.

But Eliot will also tell you that I'm quite the unbeliever unless you 
show me numbers, and by numbers I generally don't mean synthetic micro 
benchmarks ;-)

> Maybe the change is a bit premature... But I'd like people to get used
> to a style that can be simple elegant and fast (by chance it can be
> both !).

Sure, but if that's the goal then we really need better tool support. 
It's the tools that decide how this is being used - if the browser will 
automatically declare temps in innermost scope you'll have most new code 
use that automatically. If the tools break (such as when removing temps 
from block scope) you have pain and suffering.

> Concerning refactorings, what strikes me is the level of code
> duplication in Squeak. Now, I have not enough authority to slay code
> that is not mine or decide which is the best implementor. I have to
> ask first. To my eyes, the only referent authority in activity is
> Andreas, thanks for your efforts.

There are parts of the system where I gladly defer to you. If you (or 
anyone else) feel that there's a part that you'd like to fix but don't 
understand enough I think posting here is always the right approach - 
there are plenty of people like Igor, David, Colin, Eliot, Levente, 
Bert, Yoshiki, and of course you and me and lots of others who can give 
guidance to any part of the system. Lay out your idea, let people give 
feedback on it, implement it, let people review your solution, ship it. 
Authority is something you gain by actively contributing, and you got 
some :-)

Cheers,
   - Andreas




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