Re: failure due to compiler?

[Oh, well, PL/I F. I once tried to write a PDP-8 simulator in PL/I F
but found it was unable to generate correct code for 12 bit long
bit strings. (God evidently intended us to use 8 or 16 bit strings.)
...


This is slightly off topic, but when we tossed our PL/I application into the
IBM Optimizing Compiler for the first time, we discovered that the compiler
flat out couldn't handle any bit strings that were declared ALIGNED, or at
least any structure members of that type. It went into an endless loop.


(Declaring a bit string ALIGNED meant operations on it were done inline
instead of by subroutine call -- about a 15-1 performance improvement as I
recall.)


Not particularly interesting, until we started considering that during IBM's
compiler development -- all of alpha testing -- all of beta testing -- and
*a year of release* -- no one had considered it worth while to declare any
bit strings ALIGNED. Says something about IBM's clientele of the time.
--

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