Re: Dead code elimination

In article 91-10-109 Chuck Lins <chuck_lins1@gateway.qm.apple.com> writes:
>Of course as John mentioned, routines like printf cause extra code to be
>brought in...
>[Son of Soapbox: I've seen Fortran compilers that scan the format statements
>at compile time and emit external references to just the routines needed...


It is worth noting that the *original* C implementation did not bring the
printf floating-point conversions (which were the only really bulky part
in those long-gone days of small, simple code) into the object module
unless the program actually used floating point. This needed minimal
cooperation from the compiler -- emitting a request for a special global
symbol when floating-point code was used -- and careful ordering of
sequentially-searched libraries. It was generally a good bet that a
program which used floating-point numbers was going to print a few.


I fear that the bulk of stuff brought in by printf nowadays is probably
not conversions, but bloated versions of support facilities like the
i/o library. Clever compilers will not help this, because even if you
break printf into pieces, all the pieces will want the same support.
--
Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology, henry@zoo.toronto.edu utzoo!henry


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