Index: generic/tclExecute.c
==================================================================
--- generic/tclExecute.c
+++ generic/tclExecute.c
@@ -4932,26 +4932,62 @@
 			memCmpFn = (memCmpFn_t) Tcl_UniCharNcmp;
 		    }
 		}
 	    } else {
 		/*
-		 * strcmp can't do a simple memcmp in order to handle the
-		 * special Tcl \xC0\x80 null encoding for utf-8.
+		 * In order to handle the special Tcl \xC0\x80 null encoding
+		 * for utf-8, strcmp can't do a simple memcmp.
 		 */
 
-		s1 = TclGetStringFromObj(valuePtr, &s1len);
-		s2 = TclGetStringFromObj(value2Ptr, &s2len);
+		if (TclCheckEmptyString(valuePtr) > 0) {
+		    s1 = "";
+		    s1len = 0;
+		    switch (TclCheckEmptyString(value2Ptr)) {
+			case -1:
+			    s2 = TclGetStringFromObj(value2Ptr, &s2len);
+			    break;
+			case 0:
+			    /* Synthesize a value for comparison */
+			    s2 = "1";
+			    s2len = 1;
+			    break;
+			case 1:
+			    s2 = "";
+			    s2len = 0;
+		    }
+		} else if (TclCheckEmptyString(value2Ptr) > 0) {
+		    s2 = "";
+		    s2len = 0;
+		    switch (TclCheckEmptyString(valuePtr)) {
+			case -1:
+			    s1 = TclGetStringFromObj(valuePtr, &s1len);
+			    break;
+			case 0:
+			    /* Synthesize a value for comparison */
+			    s1 = "1";
+			    s1len = 1;
+			    break;
+			case 1:
+			    s1 = "";
+			    s1len = 0;
+		    }
+		} else {
+		    s1 = TclGetStringFromObj(valuePtr, &s1len);
+		    s2 = TclGetStringFromObj(value2Ptr, &s2len);
+		}
+
 		if (checkEq) {
 		    memCmpFn = memcmp;
 		} else {
 		    memCmpFn = (memCmpFn_t) TclpUtfNcmp2;
 		}
+
 	    }
 
 	    if (checkEq && (s1len != s2len)) {
 		match = 1;
-	    } else {
+	    }  else {
 		/*
 		 * The comparison function should compare up to the minimum
 		 * byte length only.
 		 */
 		match = memCmpFn(s1, s2,
@@ -5526,10 +5562,18 @@
     case INST_GE: {
 	int iResult = 0, compare = 0;
 
 	value2Ptr = OBJ_AT_TOS;
 	valuePtr = OBJ_UNDER_TOS;
+
+	/*
+	    Try to determine, without triggering generation of a string
+	    representation, whether one value is not a number.
+	*/
+	if (TclCheckEmptyString(valuePtr) > 0 || TclCheckEmptyString(value2Ptr) > 0) {
+	    goto stringCompare;
+	}
 
 	if (GetNumberFromObj(NULL, valuePtr, &ptr1, &type1) != TCL_OK
 		|| GetNumberFromObj(NULL, value2Ptr, &ptr2, &type2) != TCL_OK) {
 	    /*
 	     * At least one non-numeric argument - compare as strings.

Index: generic/tclInt.h
==================================================================
--- generic/tclInt.h
+++ generic/tclInt.h
@@ -2696,10 +2696,14 @@
  * shared by all new objects allocated by Tcl_NewObj.
  */
 
 MODULE_SCOPE char	tclEmptyString;
 
+enum CheckEmptyStringResult {
+	TCL_EMPTYSTRING_UNKNOWN = -1, TCL_EMPTYSTRING_NO, TCL_EMPTYSTRING_YES
+};
+
 /*
  *----------------------------------------------------------------
  * Procedures shared among Tcl modules but not used by the outside world,
  * introduced by/for NRE.
  *----------------------------------------------------------------
@@ -3923,10 +3927,11 @@
 			    struct CompileEnv *envPtr);
 
 MODULE_SCOPE int	TclCompileAssembleCmd(Tcl_Interp *interp,
 			    Tcl_Parse *parsePtr, Command *cmdPtr,
 			    struct CompileEnv *envPtr);
+MODULE_SCOPE int	TclCheckEmptyString(Tcl_Obj *objPtr);
 
 /*
  * Routines that provide the [string] ensemble functionality. Possible
  * candidates for public interface.
  */
@@ -4470,10 +4475,16 @@
  *----------------------------------------------------------------
  */
 
 MODULE_SCOPE int	TclIsPureByteArray(Tcl_Obj *objPtr);
 
+#define TclIsPureDict(objPtr) \
+	(((objPtr)->bytes==NULL) && ((objPtr)->typePtr==&tclDictType))
+
+#define TclIsPureList(objPtr) \
+	(((objPtr)->bytes==NULL) && ((objPtr)->typePtr==&tclListType))
+
 /*
  *----------------------------------------------------------------
  * Macro used by the Tcl core to compare Unicode strings. On big-endian
  * systems we can use the more efficient memcmp, but this would not be
  * lexically correct on little-endian systems. The ANSI C "prototype" for

Index: generic/tclStringObj.c
==================================================================
--- generic/tclStringObj.c
+++ generic/tclStringObj.c
@@ -433,10 +433,11 @@
 	int length;
 
 	(void) Tcl_GetByteArrayFromObj(objPtr, &length);
 	return length;
     }
+
 
     /*
      * OK, need to work with the object as a string.
      */
 
@@ -452,10 +453,54 @@
 	TclNumUtfChars(numChars, objPtr->bytes, objPtr->length);
 	stringPtr->numChars = numChars;
     }
     return numChars;
 }
+
+
+
+/*
+ *----------------------------------------------------------------------
+ *
+ * TclCheckEmptyString --
+ *
+ *	Determine whether the string value of an object is or would be the
+ *	empty string, without generating a string representation.
+ *
+ * Results:
+ *	Returns 1 if empty, 0 if not, and -1 if unknown.
+ *
+ * Side effects:
+ *	None.
+ *
+ *----------------------------------------------------------------------
+ */
+int
+TclCheckEmptyString (
+    Tcl_Obj *objPtr
+) {
+    int length = -1;
+
+    if (objPtr->bytes == tclEmptyStringRep) {
+	return TCL_EMPTYSTRING_YES;
+    }
+
+    if (TclIsPureList(objPtr)) {
+	Tcl_ListObjLength(NULL, objPtr, &length);
+	return length == 0;
+    }
+
+    if (TclIsPureDict(objPtr)) {
+	Tcl_DictObjSize(NULL, objPtr, &length);
+	return length == 0;
+    }
+    
+    if (objPtr->bytes == NULL) {
+	return TCL_EMPTYSTRING_UNKNOWN;
+    }
+    return objPtr->length == 0;
+}
 
 /*
  *----------------------------------------------------------------------
  *
  * Tcl_GetUniChar --