Re: Java compiler courses

Hans-Peter Diettrich wrote:


(snip, someone wrote)


>>I agree with you and I happen to have a compiler specific education,
>>but in practice all a performance developer needs is to understand how
>>her particular compiler translates a particular program construct.


> This is just *not* what I meant. IMO it's much easier to understand
> e.g. how to write recursive procedures, when one has an idea of how
> procedure calls (parameters, stackframes...) are translated into
> machine code.


(snip)


In writing portable programs, one can't depend on the way a particular
compiler works, but on general principles. In general recursive
programs must generate a separate instance of local (automatic)
variables for each instance of the recursive procedure. There
is normally some overhead to doing that, though less one some machines
and more on others.


It is interesting to me how as machines get faster more work is
being done to speed up the procedure calling mechanism than
in the days of slower machines.


I would say, then, that one should understand both the general
principles and those of the machine/compiler one uses most.


-- glen

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