The Perl Foundation took part in Google's Summer of Code program and managed to get 8 projects funded. This is the seventh in a series of informal interviews finding out more information about these projects. Up now is Curtis Rawls with "Compiler/Optimizer Improvements to Parrot".
Hi there! Tell us a bit about yourself, including age, where you
are a student and what you are studying
My name is Curtis Rawls, and I am a 24-year-old graduate student in
Computer Science at North Carolina State University. My areas of
interest are in compiler technology, natural language, and interactive
narrative. Also, I am working as an intern this summer for HP.
You've had a Google Summer of Code project funded. What will you be
doing? How will you be doing this? What's the final product?
My project is to make improvements to the optimizing portion of the
Parrot compiler (the future VM for Perl6). There are a lot of areas
that need attention and improvement in the optimizer, such as
implementing SSA form, register allocation, various small
optimizations, and of course documentation. I won't have a "final
product" per se; all my changes get commited as they are completed.
My goal is to get as many improvements done as I can in the time
allotted. : )
How did you get interested in this topic?
I came across the idea of working with Parrot while searching for a
project for a compiler optimization course I took this spring. While
I didn't end up working with it for my class, I decided to lend a hand
to use what I had learned in my schoolwork.
Where do you see your project going after this summer?
This is an "open-ended" project, which can also be translated as
"never-ending". : ) A lot of my efforts will be geared towards
facilitating future changes: SSA form is a base for a lot of
interesting optimizations, and documentation is the best way to get
other people involved and up-to-speed quickly.
Is there any way to track your progress over the next few months?
Got a blog?
I don't have a blog for this project at the moment. I work with the
other Parrot developers on the perl6-internals mailing list, so all my patches, questions, and utter
confusion are on display there.
Did you expect to get funded?
I had no idea. The Summer of Code project is quite new, so there was
no standard of reference. I hope the Perl SoCers will set some high
standards for the program in the future! : )
Got a silly fact about yourself or the project?
I had already intended to work on Parrot in my spare time this summer.
Getting funded is great because now I have some incentive (pressure?)
to finish all my objectives.
