Names beginning with '*'

[Soubhik Bhattacharya <soubhik at cse dot iitk dot ac dot in>]

one more question-- do the names (given to patterns in the md file) that
begin with a '*' have any special significance? e.g. "*cmpsi_insn" in
sparc.md....... 

there's no gen_ function for these names in 'insn-emit.c'. is this the
only significance? 

if so, what is the point of having those names? i mean the corresponding
patterns could have as well been unnamed...... a probable answer may be to
improve readability..... let me know if i'm correct...

an informative reply will be highly appreciated...

regards,
soubhik.