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Stalin: a global optimizing compiler for Scheme

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Re: Stalin: a global optimizing compiler for Scheme

#21
It is really sad to see commentary around such a marvel that is Stalin to be exclusively around the political correctness of its name.

Stalin is an amazing piece of software. Its quite unbelievable how much it can optimize code written in a dynamically typed language like Scheme to give C code run for its money on speed for things like numerical integration etc. All those who keep chanting the trope that you need to get low level for speed, that high level languages cannot be fast, would do well to study it. I am glad to see it on Github.

Compile times are near epic, but run times are worth marveling, if not for anything else but to see that such a thing is possible

@bio4m Can we drop that sanctimonious tone please. @vomituddle does have a point, it tickles me a great deal to think USA, a country responsible for the political extermination of one ethnicity and the enslavement of another has this chip on its shoulder as if they are the shining epitome of freedom/democracy that everyone should bow to. Christsake ! get real. Had Hitler won, it is not inconceivable that the Godwin's law would have been quite different, it might as well have picked some US slave runner founder.

Finally, had Stalin been not named Stalin how else would one have StalinGrad, a derived tool for gradient based optimization. Its worth it many times over just for that pun.

EDIT: Yeah the downvotes and flags, they solve so many problems. Funny to have one of the few first comment about the software to be voted and flagged down below vapid calls to political correctness.

@scarmig that lynched guy was someones grandparent too, same applies to native Americans women and children burned in their enclaves with escape routes sealed (if you, and I dont mean scarmig in person, are not familiar its quite instructive to find out how the mystic river got its name, such incidents were hardly one off). I myself have family ties with one of the more recent mass upheavals (if I may avoid the genocide term) but from a different part in space and time. On a somewhat different note, its a strange small world, Stalin, Hitler and native Americans ! I remember your comment from a few days ago.

Re: Stalin: a global optimizing compiler for Scheme

#22

"Stalin - a STAtic Language ImplementatioN", "stalin _brutally_ optimizing Scheme compiler", "An _Aggressive_ Scheme Compiler" The naming seems like a stretch to me, and I don't appreciate the theme to be honest. If you're going for any sort of recognition of the brand then this is going to get buried under results for Joseph Stalin. Very poorly named I would have expected something better coming for Purdue Universit…

It is even less appropriate in the light of the fact that Stalin was one of the most brutally incompetent tyrants ever.

Re: Stalin: a global optimizing compiler for Scheme

#23
post #15

Holy crap HN has its tight underpants on this evening. Relax folks!

In the "name" of millions and millions and millions of dead and those brainwashed through terror, I gotta say no, don't relax. It's not funny in the least.

You'll have a pretty hard time if you ever decide to visit China.

Re: Stalin: a global optimizing compiler for Scheme

#24
post #16

I (think) stalin isn't maintained since forever; how does it compare to contemporary compilers? Are there any similar projects for other dynamic languages?

The closest is probably MLton, a compiler for Standard ML.

Named, I'm assuming, for John Milton? That so-called poet and all-around horrible person that even Samuel Johnson considered an "acrimonious and surly republican"? It's his Paradise Lost we have to thank for the scourge of "blank verse"! Oh, the humanity! Also he supported and served under Cromwell, of all people! Surely we can throw this horribly-named compiler on the dustpile of computer science history!?

Re: Stalin: a global optimizing compiler for Scheme

#25
post #16

I (think) stalin isn't maintained since forever; how does it compare to contemporary compilers? Are there any similar projects for other dynamic languages?

According to this blog post from 2009[0], it was slightly faster than C compiled with the GCC and almost 15x faster than Chicken Scheme. I have tried looking for more rigorous benchmarks but have been unable to find any.

[0] http://justindomke.wordpress.com/2009/02/23/the-stalin-compi...

Re: Stalin: a global optimizing compiler for Scheme

#26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The closest is probably MLton, a compiler for Standard ML.

Named, I'm assuming, for John Milton? That so-called poet and all-around horrible person that even Samuel Johnson considered an "acrimonious and surly republican"? It's his Paradise Lost we have to thank for the scourge of "blank verse"! Oh, the humanity! Also he supported and served under Cromwell, of all people! Surely we can throw this horribly-named compiler on the dustpile of computer science history!?

Milton never murdered between 20 and 60 million people.

Re: Stalin: a global optimizing compiler for Scheme

#27

"Stalin - a STAtic Language ImplementatioN", "stalin _brutally_ optimizing Scheme compiler", "An _Aggressive_ Scheme Compiler" The naming seems like a stretch to me, and I don't appreciate the theme to be honest. If you're going for any sort of recognition of the brand then this is going to get buried under results for Joseph Stalin. Very poorly named I would have expected something better coming for Purdue Universit…

There's plenty of bad taste wandering around Purdue's campus. Most recently, multiple professors were criticized for joking about the Cousins shooting as it was happening.

Re: Stalin: a global optimizing compiler for Scheme

#28

Holy crap HN has its tight underpants on this evening. Relax folks!

Naming something, even in jest, after one of the most vicious mass murderers in human history is just shameful. Most historians agree that Stalin is responsible for 20 to 60 million non-wartime deaths. Making jokes about any mass murderer trivializes their victims.

There's a restaurant down the street from me named after Genghis Khan. There's a craft brew named after Tamurlane. I could go on and on.

Re: Stalin: a global optimizing compiler for Scheme

#29
Can't we just maintain our sense of humor about things like this and move on? The project is old, the dictator is dead... And its not like naming a project after Stalin is "endorsing" him. It's merely personifying the potentially boring nature of program by calling it "brutal" and "aggressive".

Now I have to think about whether I would be ok with other potentially offensive names... Boko Haram, the packet capturing tool. It even has the 'Islamic State' functionality that removes HTTP headers from their respective packet bodies. Hmm..

Re: Stalin: a global optimizing compiler for Scheme

#30
post #21

It is really sad to see commentary around such a marvel that is Stalin to be exclusively around the political correctness of its name. Stalin is an amazing piece of software. Its quite unbelievable how much it can optimize code written in a dynamically typed language like Scheme to give C code run for its money on speed for things like numerical integration etc. All those who keep chanting the trope that you need to…

One person's political correctness is another's "that man murdered my wife's great grandfather."

Yes, really. "And you lynch negroes" notwithstanding. (And, yes, I'm also that guy who is more than happy to puncture American propagandistic historiography.)

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