[hugomg]

The difference is the Lua-C API. The default Lua-C API is designed for humans: it is stable and safe to use, but every operation must pay the cost of function calls and passing data through the Lua stack. Pallene bypasses the API and reaches into the Lua tables directly. This is much faster, but would be impractical without the Pallene compiler. The internal struct layouts are unstable, and unsafe if you're not very careful.