generator expressions: performance anomaly?

[Steve Holden]

Stephen Thorne wrote:

> On Tue, 18 Jan 2005 07:12:18 -0500, Steve Holden <steve at holdenweb.com> wrote:
> 
>>Since it doesn't yet optimize 2+5 to a constant-folded 7 you should
>>realize that you are suggesting a large increase in the compiler's
>>analytical powers.
> 
> 
> As in interesting aside to this, you might be interested to know that
> PHP has constant folding, allowing you to do things like
> $foo = 7+9; and have it generate bytecode that is "let 'foo' equal 16"
> or somesuch.
> 
> PHP achieves this by having a subset of expression parsing available
> only for situations where a folded constant is allowed.
> 
> i.e.
> class Foo {
>   var $bar = 1+4; /* this constant is folded */
> }
> 
> static_scalar: /* compile-time evaluated scalars */
>         common_scalar     |   T_STRING     |   '+' static_scalar     |
>   '-' static_scalar     |   T_ARRAY '(' static_array_pair_list ')'
> ;
> common_scalar:
> /* all numbers, strings-not-containing-variable-interpolation and a
> few hacks like __FILE__ and __LINE__ */
> ;
> 
> As you can see from the grammar, there are any number of ways this can break.
> 
> i.e.
> Parse Error, * isn't allowed:
> class Foo { var $bar = 60*60*24; }
> 
> Parse Error, neither is anything except + and -:
> class Foo { var $bar = 256 & 18; }
> 
> Parse Error, and definately not variables:
> $baz = 12;
> class Foo { var $bar = $baz*2; }
> 
> I compute 60*60*24 every time around the loop:
> foreach ($myarray as $value) { $x = 60*60*24*$value; }
> 
> Thankful, Former PHP Programmer,
> Stephen Thorne.

Yes, well, this just goes to confirm my belief that PHP isn't a 
programming language. I am always amazed at what's been achieved with it 
(though I sometimes wonder at what cost).

You probably already know that sensible compiled language systems have 
used constant folding since time immemorial, but Python has always 
eschewed it. That's what comes of being a pragmatist's language: if such 
optimizations really are required the programmer is expected to perform 
them.

and-ninety-nine-point-nine-nine-percent-of-the-time-they-aren't-ly y'rs 
  - steve
-- 
Steve Holden               http://www.holdenweb.com/
Python Web Programming  http://pydish.holdenweb.com/
Holden Web LLC      +1 703 861 4237  +1 800 494 3119