[PRL] Starkiller: a Static Type Inferencer and Compiler for Python

[Mitchell Wand]

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Subject: TALK:5-11-04 Starkiller: a Static Type Inferencer and Compiler
Date: Mon, 03 May 2004 10:18:19 -0400


Starkiller: a Static Type Inferencer and Compiler for Python
Speaker: Michael J. Salib
Speaker Affiliation: MIT CSAIL
Host: Jonathan Bachrach
Host Affiliation: MIT CSAIL

Date: 5-11-2004
Time: 3:00 PM - 4:00 PM
Location: 32-397

Starkiller: a Static Type Inferencer and Compiler for Python

                   - OR -

Making Python Faster than C by Destroying the Sun



Python is a highly dynamic, object oriented programming

language. Despite its wide use in performance intensive applications

such as scientific computing at Lawrence Livermore National Lab and

search work at Google, its performance remains poor. Starkiller's goal

is make Python programs as fast as equivalent programs written in

statically typed languages. To that end, it statically analyzes programs

written in Python and generates equivalent C++ programs. In the process,

Starkiller eliminates most uses of dynamic binding and dynamic dispatch,

resulting in substantial performance improvements. A very early version

of the compiler already speeds up numerical code by a factor of 60

without the benefit of many possible optimizations that have not yet

been applied.



This talk will briefly explain why type inference for Python is so

difficult before describing how the type inferencer works and how the

information it generates is used to direct efficient compilation. Two

years ago, I presented a talk on a type inferencer for Python that was

also called Starkiller. This talk describes completely new work that

differs substantially from the original. Whereas the original Starkiller

was a proof of concept type inferencer only that supported a very

limited subset of the language, this version not only handles almost the

entire language, but also includes a compiler.



This talk describes my soon-to-be completed MEng thesis.

Relevant URL(S): 
For more information please contact: Greg Sullivan, 617-253-5807, gregs at csail.mit.edu

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