Linux and aliasing?

[Joe Buck]

> Linus Torvalds <torvalds@transmeta.com> writes:
> | So on a technical level, let me explain it the way I thought gcc might
> | implement this rather than explaining the end result as I initially went
> | about.

Gaby writes:
> Do you have a complete patch?

For something like this, it's not best to take a rigid "complete patch or
go away" stance (tempting as it is).  Linus has provided enough of a
skeleton at this point where it's possible to discuss whether the approach
is feasible (though the folks expert on that part of the compiler may not
have the cycles to discuss it in detail just now).

By the way, I said something stupid earlier in this discussion: while
Linux was once an order of magnitude smaller than gcc back in the 1.2
days, now, thanks to tons of device drivers it's about the same size.
Since I never download the whole thing (just patches, and I'm still
running 2.0.3x for some x), I hadn't really noticed this.

So clearly I was wrong to say that gcc is much bigger than Linux.
Sorry, Linus.