Using type annotations to improve performance

[OlivierNicole]

Hi!

Sorry if this has already been evocated, but I find interesting the idea that type annotations can, in principle, be used to improve the performance of programming in a language such as Lua (by removing part of the run-time type checks and type information). Julia uses that a lot, through the programming paradigm of multiple dispatch, to have a good performance while still offering a very flexible, dynamically-typed programming experience.

Of course, this is beyond the current scope of teal, since it requires a new Lua interpreter / compiler. But I was wondering whether the idea had crossed other minds than mine: having a type system that helps you find mistakes, and improves your run times.