Re: why macsyma commercial share packages are compiled

Richard Fateman ÐÉÛÅÔ:
> 
> Speed is probably NOT as much of a reason for this
> as (a) secrecy, (b) compactness of representation.
> 

Yes, I understand this perfectly.  Probably even (a)
is the most important reason.  I referred to commercial
Macsyma just to prove that share compilation is
_possible_.

> It is, I think, entirely reasonable for share packages
> to be provided solely in source code form.  The most
> time is spent in calls to already compiled lisp code.
> Compiling the "script" usually does not matter.
> 
> If you have a piece of code that loops 10000 times
> through evaluating a numerical expression, the compiler
> will help.  But writing it in lisp in the first
> place will do even better.
> 

I still don't quite understand the reason of your
negative attitude toward compiled share.  After all
all parts of Maxima including share and Maxima core
always available with source code.  So unlike
commercial Macsyma secrecy is not longer an issue.

I also agree that for major part of share compilation
don't ensure any performance gain but are you really
sure about all packages - especially complicated ones?
So my idea is - let's compile them all and forged
forever about any possible interpreter performance
penalties (source code is still near at hand!).
Writing is lisp is fine but writing in lisp and
compiling is even better.


-- 
      Vadim V. Zhytnikov

       <vvzhy@mail.ru>
      <vvzhy@netorn.ru>