“Scheme is a dynamic language which means that there is a limited amount of compile-time information that can be used by Guile to optimize the resulting bytecode. When we put on our optimizer hat, our job is to give the compiler a hand so the optimization passes can do their thing. I should stress that the level of code scrutiny we’re about to get into is usually unnecessary and the result doesn’t always look like the beautiful, functional Scheme you may be used to. However, most programs have some core loop or kernel, a small piece of the larger program, that would be benefit from being optimized to its fullest. In Chickadee, the most performance sensitive code is in the graphics layer, where lots of floating point math happens.”

Scheme is a dynamic language which means that there is a limited amount of compile-time information that can be used by Guile to optimize the resulting bytecode. When we put on our optimizer hat, our job is to give the compiler a hand so the optimization passes can do their thing. I should stress that the level of code scrutiny we’re about to get into is usually unnecessary and the result doesn’t always look like the beautiful, functional Scheme you may be used to. However, most programs have some core loop or kernel, a small piece of the larger program, that would be benefit from being optimized to its fullest. In Chickadee, the most performance sensitive code is in the graphics layer, where lots of floating point math happens.

Scheme is a dynamic language which means that there is a limited amount of compile-time information that can be used by Guile to optimize the resulting bytecode. When we put on our optimizer hat, our job is to give the compiler a hand so the optimization passes can do their thing. I should stress that the level of code scrutiny we’re about to get into is usually unnecessary and the result doesn’t always look like the beautiful, functional Scheme you may be used to. However, most programs have some core loop or kernel, a small piece of the larger program, that would be benefit from being optimized to its fullest. In Chickadee, the most performance sensitive code is in the graphics layer, where lots of floating point math happens.