A Tcl Compiler

A TCL to C compiler is described. It converts TCL procedures into C functions, which can be linked to the TCL interpreter. The compiler also performs type analysis to enable the use of int and double C variables, where possible. These features combine to provide a remarkable speedup for numerically intensive programs, and a significant speedup for string oriented procedures. This paper discusses how the type inference is performed, future directions that the project might take, and some problems with the TCL language that result in restrictions on what can be compiled. Introduction The TCL language was originally designed to be an embedded scripting language [Ousterhout ]. It is easily extensible, both through a well defined C callback API, and by creating new TCL proc's. The language supports only one type --- strings --- although some commands require the string to be of a specific format. List commands expect the strings to be in the standard list format, and expr normally expects..