Re: gcc compile-time performance

[dewar at gnat dot com (Robert Dewar)]

> I'd just be nice for gcc to be faster if that wasn't too hard to do! Maybe
> precompiled headers would make a significant difference. Perhaps gcc
> developers would like to get gcc's internals in a better state before
> going down this line.

It seems to me that if precompiled headers would make a huge difference, then
they are patching a synmptom which is that the C++ front end is too slow.

The issue of fancy new optimizations is something that basically affects
the back end, and there are fundamental reasons why you would expect the
GCC back end to be slower than backends aimed at specific architectures
for example.

But there is no reason for the g++ front end to be slower than for example
the Code Warrior front end. If code warrior can do a complete C++ compile
in 2 minutes, then for sure the g++ front end need not take longer than this.

On the other hand a full C++ front end is a very complex beast, so this is
not something that can be casually fixed.

Mark, you were working on a new g++ parser, what's the story on that
project?