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RE: gcc compile-time performance
- From: dewar at gnat dot com (Robert Dewar)
- To: gcc at gcc dot gnu dot org, scott at coyotegulch dot com
- Date: Sat, 18 May 2002 11:21:29 -0400 (EDT)
- Subject: RE: gcc compile-time performance
> People in wealthier areas tend to ignore the realities of the rest of the
> world. So far as I know, gcc isn't just written for people in the U.S. and
> Western Europe; perhaps I was wrong. Even in the U.S., there exist
> significant segments of society that can not spend $500 on a new computer
> every year or so.
It is not that gcc is written just for people in the US. It is that GCC was
NEVER written as a compiler that was fast. The comparison of gcc to fast
compilers in terms of memory usage and compile time is a ludicrous one
(as far as I can tell for example, Realia COBOL is about 100 times faster
in compile time, and can run in 128K of memory, with 512K being luxurious).
You can't meet all goals in a compiler project. If you want a fast student
compiler that can run on old machines successfully, then GCC is not it, and
a much improved GCC that runs in half the space and half the time is not it
either. If you really think that such a compiler is useful (I would agree)
why not start a free software project to produce one -- seems to me like
it would be a very nice project -- and there are probably some interesting
starting points).