Is a "real" C-Python possible?

[Adam Funk]

On 2007-12-10, sturlamolden wrote:

> We have seen several examples that 'dynamic' and 'interpreted'
> languages can be quite efficient: There is an implementation of Common
> Lisp - CMUCL - that can compete with Fortran in efficiency for
> numerical computing. There are also versions of Lisp than can compete
> with the latest versions of JIT-compiled Java, e.g. SBCL and Allegro.
> As it happens, SBCL and CMUCL is mostly implemented in Lisp. The issue
> of speed for a language like Python has a lot to do with the quality
> of the implementation. What really makes CMUCL shine is the compiler
> that emits efficient native code on the fly. If it is possible to make
> a very fast Lisp, it should be possible to make a very fast Python as
> well. I remember people complaining 10 years ago that 'Lisp is so
> slow'. A huge effort has been put into making Lisp efficient enough
> for AI. I hope Python some day will gain a little from that effort as
> well.

I've been told that Torbjörn Lager's implementation of the Brill
tagger in Prolog is remarkably fast, but that it uses some
counter-intuitive arrangements of the predicate and argument
structures in order to take advantage of the way Prolog databases are
indexed.