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From: ah4h#@andrew.cmu.EDU (Andrew Hudson)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: Re: Optimizing Floating Point & Tartan C Compiler
Message-ID: <6970@brl-adm.ARPA>
Date: Sun, 19-Apr-87 13:27:47 EST
Article-I.D.: brl-adm.6970
Posted: Sun Apr 19 13:27:47 1987
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Henry Spencer writes that it is possible to optimize C source in such a way
as to make it non-portable.  We are talking about floating point evaluation
and not dependencies like device drivers, byte ordering,or math libraries,
the only non-portable aspect I can think of is float size. Can you be more
specific about floating point optimizations, an example would be nice.

A few years ago Tartan Laboratories of Pittsburgh developed the Tartan C
Compiler (tcc). It was alleged to be a highly optimizing C compiler
completely compatible with the portable C compiler. I was surprised that
efficiency minded programmers didn't snap it up and laud it as the speed
messiah of system programming.  Has anyone had or heard of experiences with
tcc? I am most curious to know why it never caught on.

Andrew Hudson @ CMU Psychology Dept.
ah4h@andrew.cmu.edu.arpa