Blogs (9) >>
SPLASH 2016
Sun 30 October - Fri 4 November 2016 Amsterdam, Netherlands
Mon 31 Oct 2016 11:25 - 12:10 at St Gallen - Session 2 Chair(s): Tony Hosking

Programming language VMs are now widely used, from server applications to web browsers. Benchmarks show that VMs can optimise programs to the same degree as, and often substantially better than, traditional static compilers. VMs, it seems, have more than proved their worth.

And yet there are still many people who are unhappy with the VMs they use. Frequently their programs don’t run anywhere near as fast as benchmarks suggest; sometimes their programs run slower than more naive language implementations.

Often our reaction is to tell such users that their programs are “wrong” and to fix them. While this is sometimes a reasonable answer, this talk’s thesis is that we use this answer too often. I will therefore discuss some of the reasons why I believe real users don’t see the same performance levels that VM implementers. I will then offer some thoughts for how, and to what extent, we can make more VM users more happy.

I am a programmer and Reader in Software Development in the Department of Informatics at King’s College London where I lead the Software Development Team. I am an EPSRC Fellow. I co-founded Elbatrop.

Mon 31 Oct

Displayed time zone: Amsterdam, Berlin, Bern, Rome, Stockholm, Vienna change

10:30 - 12:10
Session 2VMIL at St Gallen
Chair(s): Tony Hosking Australian National University, Data61, and Purdue University
10:30
50m
Talk
SPLASH-E Keynote (Room Matterhorn 3)
VMIL
Simon Peyton Jones Microsoft Research, Cambridge
11:25
45m
Talk
Invited Talk: Why aren't more users more happy with our VMs?
VMIL
K: Laurence Tratt King's College London
Media Attached