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Re: Faster compilation speed
- From: Stan Shebs <shebs at apple dot com>
- To: Robert Dewar <dewar at gnat dot com>
- Cc: drow at mvista dot com, Theodore dot Papadopoulo at sophia dot inria dot fr, gcc at gcc dot gnu dot org, mrs at apple dot com, phil at jaj dot com
- Date: Tue, 13 Aug 2002 11:52:43 -0700
- Subject: Re: Faster compilation speed
- References: <20020813161040.7146AF2D49@nile.gnat.com>
Robert Dewar wrote:
My point is that if you embark on a big project that will take you two
years to complete successfully, that speeds up the compiler by a factor
of two, then it probably will seem not that worth while when it is finished.
In our case, we're being compared with CodeWarrior, which will also
run faster on faster hardware, so we can't win without making the
compiler faster. GCC is effectively a monopoly on Linux, so many
people here don't have anything to compare with, but Mac developers
are astonished that anyone would put up with a compiler as slow as GCC.
You have to look for easy opportunities for big gains. Nothing else is worth
while. In general you cannot design a slow compiler and then molest it into
being a fast compiler, you have to design in speed as a major criterion from
the start. Small incremental changes just don't get you where you want to be.
<Alec Guiness voice>...then the Emperor has already won!
:-)
I'm not very keen on trying to start from scratch, the people that have
tried over the past few years haven't done so well. Also, since we don't
seem to have a good understanding of why GCC is slow, then why would we
expect a redesign to somehow avoid those problems? And if we do get an
understanding, then we can estimate the effort to change it incrementally.
Stan