Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!bellcore!faline!thumper!ulysses!andante!princeton!udel!gatech!ncar!ames!pasteur!ucbvax!agate!eos!labrea!sri-unix!garth!smryan
From: smryan@garth.UUCP
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: Re: volatile
Message-ID: <673@garth.UUCP>
Date: 20 May 88 21:21:21 GMT
References: <20345@pyramid.pyramid.com> <502@wsccs.UUCP> <51431@sun.uucp> <659@garth.UUCP> <11566@mimsy.UUCP>
Reply-To: smryan@garth.UUCP (Steven Ryan)
Organization: INTERGRAPH (APD) -- Palo Alto, CA
Lines: 15
Posted: Fri May 20 17:21:21 1988

Enormously expensive refers quadratic, cubic, quadric, or higher order time.
Best possible optimisation uses exponential time.  (There are few transistive
closures involved, graph colourring, et cetera.)

What is involved is spending a few days to compile a large system.

Some of us have customers who notice if compilation times increases by a
millsecond.

Also, please do not assume the Church-Turing Hypothesis.

The point being, do not expect magic from a compiler. It can provide at best
linear improvement. And like everything else in life, the more you put into
the more you get out. The less you put in, the less you get out. It's up to
you decide if the effort is worthwhile.