[plt-scheme] R6RS Interoperability

On Thu, Jun 26, 2008 at 11:14 PM, Noel Welsh <noelwelsh at gmail.com> wrote:
> I'd like more speed as much as the next programmer, but I expect
> getting funding for compiler development is very difficult as the
> basics have been done many times over and therefore have very little
> research value.
>
> N.
>

Are there any mainstream languages out there which allow you to code
your program quickly using a dynamically-typed language, and then
gradually add type annotations to improve performance?  As I
understand it, "gradual typing" is an active area of research, and
Typed Scheme brings new techniques to the table, in terms of providing
soundness in interaction between modules and allowing fairly
straightforward annotation of idiomatic Scheme code.  Since
performance is a key goal of gradual typing, it seems like a
reasonable litmus test to apply to Typed Scheme -- does Typed Scheme's
approach offer the same sorts of optimization opportunities as a
statically-typed language, or are there complications caused by its
interoperability with dynamically-typed modules?  Seems like a
genuine, useful research topic to me...

--Mark