Re: PATCH: Generalize tree-dumping infrastructure

[Neil Booth <neil at daikokuya dot demon dot co dot uk>]

Per Bothner wrote:-

> Yes,  when the C/C++ people implemented representing whole functions
> as trees they decided to add a whole slew of new tree types, instead of
> re-using the existing ones.  Thus where Java represents a conditional (if)
> statement the same way as it represents a conditional expression (using a
> COND_EXPR), C/C++ use the new IF_STMT.  I don't understand the
> reason for using the new tree nodes - it seems the wrong thing to do,
> since it needlessly duplicates code and functionality, unless there
> is some significant distinction.

I'm a fan of reducing the number of tree codes.  It just means more
cases to worry about, and more opportunities for bugs, particularly in
code like fold ().

Neil.