Abstract

Tcl is a highly dynamic language that is especially challenging to execute efficiently. The dual-language nature of the system enforced by the C callback mechanism makes traditional compilation and optimization unrealistic. In addition, the lack of formal data types (and therefore type checking) places severe limits on the ability to provide for efficient data storage at compile time. In this paper, we discuss the many issues involved with compiling Tcl, and present a design for such a system, including the mechanism for embedding a Tcl script into the compiler itself in order to provide user extensibility. The current implementation is presented along with results showing approximately ten times the performance of the existing Tcl interpreter. 1 Introduction 1.1 Overview of the Tcl Language Tcl[Ous93] is designed to address the need for a "scripting" language, providing high-level control over a program. The interface between Tcl and the running program consists of the Tcl runtime l...

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