basic-block and profile-based optimizing (was Re: New attribute"infrequent"?)

[Mark Mitchell]

> I don't think that adding such an attribute-mechanism to a library
> interface is all that necessary, nor will it be worth the work and
> maintance.

I strongly agree.

I think that sometimes we try to invent new techinques for
dealing with old problems.  The cold hard reality of the situation is
that people have been building compilers that often generate better
code than GCC for quite a while without using anything similar
to this attribute, to the best of my knowledge.

That doesn't mean we shouldn't add it, necessary -- perhaps we are
cleverer than other implementors, or have found a new and different
way to solve a problem -- but I believe that generally we are better
off imitating best existing practice.  If Sun, HP, IBM, and Intel
can all get by without it, and still generate good code, then
probably we can too.

Do any other compiler vendors have such an attribute?

-- 
Mark Mitchell                mark@codesourcery.com
CodeSourcery, LLC            http://www.codesourcery.com