Xref: utzoo comp.lang.c:26897 comp.lang.misc:4450 Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!clyde.concordia.ca!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!samsung!emory!mephisto!bloom-beacon!eru!luth!sunic!mcsun!ukc!edcastle!lfcs!nick From: nick@lfcs.ed.ac.uk (Nick Rothwell) Newsgroups: comp.lang.c,comp.lang.misc Subject: Re: problems/risks ... Message-ID: <2814@castle.ed.ac.uk> Date: 14 Mar 90 10:36:00 GMT References: <2596@gmu90x.gmu.edu> <300@isgtec.UUCP> <2000@l.cc.purdue.edu> Reply-To: nick@lfcs.ed.ac.uk (Nick Rothwell) Organization: Jenny Agutter Appreciation Society of Edinburgh Lines: 41 In-reply-to: cik@l.cc.purdue.edu (Herman Rubin) In article <2000@l.cc.purdue.edu>, cik@l.cc (Herman Rubin) writes: >In article <300@isgtec.UUCP>, robert@isgtec.UUCP (Robert A. Osborne) writes: >> lou@atanasoff.rutgers.edu (Lou Steinberg) writes: >> >ARGHHH!! That is what subroutines (and macros) are for - to handle >> >common code. And if your language makes them too expensive, either in >> >terms of run time or in terms of programmer effort, then THAT is an >> >even worse problem with the language than the problems with break. >> ARGHHH!! Why are we constantly bombarded with people who do not understand >> that PEFORMANCE IS SOMETIMES AN ISSUE!!!!! >> >> I was under the impression that C's function calls are, relative to other >> high level languages, very inexpensive, (is this still true?) >> in which case if you are using fall-through to gain speed (which I have >> done several times) there is probably a good reason! > >Simple, yes. Inexpensive, no. How about "free"? Is there any reason why a decent compiler shouldn't beta-reduce function calls to inlining? "Why are we constantly bombarded by people who do not understand that compiler technology can solve a lot of these problems, if only we could move away from 20 year old compilers". I could also make a comment about moving away from horrible 20-year-old languages like C, but I suspect that's not an option. >I can conceive of a way in which hardware >can be constructed which would make subroutine calls inexpensive, but I >know of no machine which has it. Do it in the compiler. >Herman Rubin, Dept. of Statistics, Purdue Univ., West Lafayette IN47907 Nick. -- Nick Rothwell, Laboratory for Foundations of Computer Science, Edinburgh. nick@lfcs.ed.ac.uk !mcvax!ukc!lfcs!nick ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ A prop? ...or wings? A prop? ...or wings? A prop?