Re: Fast code vs. fast compile

Dennis Yelle <dennis@netcom.com> wrote:
|> As a compiler user, I am (almost) always more concerned about fast
|> code rather than fast compilation.
|> ...
|> [Perhaps you don't work on very large programs. A few years back when I
|> was recompiling a 600,000 line C program on three platforms every night,
|> I would have been extremely pleased to have a faster compiler available
|> than GCC. -John]


Actually the two speeds, compilation versus execution, are sometimes
related. Often the compiler for a language is eventually written in
that language itself. For instance, it is common for C compilers to
be written in C. So if a compiler writer spends a lot of effort
generating optimized code, his efforts will speed up his own compiler
too. So the question becomes: will the extra time spent on
optimization be offset by the time save due to optimization. The
answer affects both the original compiler writer, and the programmers
that use the resulting compiler to write more compilers.


--
Daniel J. Salomon -- salomon@cs.UManitoba.CA
              Dept. of Computer Science / University of Manitoba
              Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada R3T 2N2 / (204) 474-8687
--

Return to the comp.compilers page.
Search the comp.compilers archives again.