Static type inferencer for dynamic languages

Thesis (M. Eng.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 2004.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 93-96).This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections.Starkiller is a type inferencer and compiler for the dynamic language Python designed to generate fast native code. It analyzes Python source programs and converts them into equivalent C++ programs. Starkiller's type inference algorithm is based on the Cartesian Product Algorithm but has been significantly modified to support a radically different language. It includes an External Type Description Language that enables extension authors to document how their foreign code extensions interact with Python. This enables Starkiller to analyze Python code that interacts with foreign code written in C, C++, or Fortran. The type inference algorithm also handles data polymorphism in addition to parametric polymorphism, thus improving precision. Starkiller supports the entire Python language except for dynamic code insertion features such as eval and dynamic module loading. While the system is not yet complete, early numeric benchmarks show that Starkiller compiled code performs almost as well as hand made C code and substantially better than alternative Python compilers.by Michael Salib.M.Eng