Well the problem is that the DSL uses strings, so any representation which keeps variable names as strings still needs storage and comparison, which currently only the fixed type does. Though c2dsl could instead use a unique integer for every string for variables.

The first value of each instruction would then always be one of a fixed set of opcodes, variables their IDs, and numbers left as-is (and we've invented machine code :)). Then (K, V) is always fixed-size and laid out predictably in memory, so the linear-search approach sounds reasonable.

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shoo 2 hours ago | parent [-]

another approach could be to support strings, of length exactly 1. would 256 unique strings be enough to name all the variables (& functions?) in an interesting program?

	▲	epestr an hour ago \| parent [-]
		Yup. > rg var ray.dsl \| wc -l 142 > rg func ray.dsl \| wc -l 6 +28 for opcodes, bringing it to 176. So it works for this interesting program, the raytracer, but the compiler likely requires way more. Maybe not the 4 cells I've been using, but 2^16 = 65k would be enough buckets but unique names.