In article <3c0ea20f.10207128@news.povray.org> , ken### [at] uniplanit (Angelo 
'kENpEX' Pesce) wrote:

> Ok, I understand that there are problems with it, but as this is a
> really needed feature imho we should try to find a workaround... Why
> not trying to make a fast, compiled script support (in a
> meta-bytecode, like renderman). Or better, why not integrate renderman
> shader support into povray (povman rulez!)?

The function VM in 3.5 is exactly that.  It would even support hooking in a
really just-in-time compiled function, if any team member would have the
time to write a JIT.  As you know, Sun took years to develop their JIT, but
unfortunately the JVM/JIT combination is not appropriate for functions
because it is optimized for "abstraction" (I can't think of a better work
also abstraction isn't what I really want to say) rather than maximum speed.

To design a VM and JIT which is optimized only for speed of basic operations
has, afaik, not ever been done so far.  Even worse, there is hardly any
literature about VM and JIT compiler design.  As you see, with the resources
and knowledge available today are limited, and you can't expect the POV-Team
to do all the necessary research in their free time...

    Thorsten

____________________________________________________
Thorsten Froehlich
e-mail: mac### [at] povrayorg

I am a member of the POV-Ray Team.
Visit POV-Ray on the web: http://mac.povray.org

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