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elisp: Byte Compilation

 
 16 Byte Compilation
 *******************
 
 Emacs Lisp has a “compiler” that translates functions written in Lisp
 into a special representation called “byte-code” that can be executed
 more efficiently.  The compiler replaces Lisp function definitions with
 byte-code.  When a byte-code function is called, its definition is
 evaluated by the “byte-code interpreter”.
 
    Because the byte-compiled code is evaluated by the byte-code
 interpreter, instead of being executed directly by the machine’s
 hardware (as true compiled code is), byte-code is completely
 transportable from machine to machine without recompilation.  It is not,
 however, as fast as true compiled code.
 
    In general, any version of Emacs can run byte-compiled code produced
 by recent earlier versions of Emacs, but the reverse is not true.
 
    If you do not want a Lisp file to be compiled, ever, put a file-local
 variable binding for ‘no-byte-compile’ into it, like this:
 
      ;; -*-no-byte-compile: t; -*-
 

Menu

 
· Speed of Byte-Code          An example of speedup from byte compilation.
· Compilation Functions       Byte compilation functions.
· Docs and Compilation        Dynamic loading of documentation strings.
· Dynamic Loading             Dynamic loading of individual functions.
· Eval During Compile         Code to be evaluated when you compile.
· Compiler Errors             Handling compiler error messages.
· Byte-Code Objects           The data type used for byte-compiled functions.
· Disassembly                 Disassembling byte-code; how to read byte-code.
 

Info Catalog elisp: Loading elisp: Top elisp: Debugging