Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!mips!spool.mu.edu!news.cs.indiana.edu!rutgers!cbmvax!daveh
From: daveh@cbmvax.commodore.com (Dave Haynie)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.programmer
Subject: Re: REVIEW:  Comeau C++ compiler
Keywords: programming, language, C++, compiler
Message-ID: <20862@cbmvax.commodore.com>
Date: 22 Apr 91 22:41:44 GMT
References: <1991Apr10.051104.25326@menudo.uh.edu> <36748@ditka.Chicago.COM> <1540@tronsbox.xei.com> <36963@ditka.Chicago.COM> <1991Apr17.174759.16250@jato.jpl.nasa.gov>
Reply-To: daveh@cbmvax.commodore.com (Dave Haynie)
Organization: Commodore, West Chester, PA
Lines: 18

In article <1991Apr17.174759.16250@jato.jpl.nasa.gov> jdickson@jato.Jpl.Nasa.Gov (Jeff Dickson) writes:

>	Since this C++ compiler rewrites your C++ into plain'ol C, does it
>do a good job? Say compared to if a human performed the translation manually.

When a C++ compiler translates C++ code into C, it is doing much the same thing
that a C compiler does when it translates C into object code.  Could you do a
better job of translating C into assembler?  I would think not, though a good
assembler programmer can write somewhat more efficient code in assembler than a
C programmer writes via a typical compiler.  Given the extra complexities of
the C++ language, even if you wanted to do a hand translation, and felt you 
could do better, it would take forever, and your head would eventually explode.
I don't think you want to hand translate Modula2 or Ada into C, either, but it
certainly could be done.
-- 
Dave Haynie Commodore-Amiga (Amiga 3000) "The Crew That Never Rests"
   {uunet|pyramid|rutgers}!cbmvax!daveh      PLINK: hazy     BIX: hazy
      "That's me in the corner, that's me in the spotlight" -R.E.M.