Revisiting Dynamic Dispatch for Modern Architectures

Explore a 22-minute conference talk from VMIL 2023 that proposes an alternative dispatch mechanism for dynamic programming languages. Delve into Dave Mason's research from Toronto Metropolitan University as he challenges the long-standing Deutsch-Schiffman dispatch method used in languages like Smalltalk, Ruby, and Python since the 1980s. Examine the drawbacks of traditional dispatch for modern hardware and applications, and discover a new approach that promises near-optimal dynamic performance with only a trade-off in memory space. Learn how this innovative method aims to rival the efficiency of programs with full type information. The presentation, sponsored by ACM SIGPLAN and ACM SIGAda, offers valuable insights for developers and researchers interested in improving method dispatch for dynamically-typed languages in contemporary computing environments.