Minor suggestion

[Alex Hornby]

Simon de Hartog wrote:

> Hi,
>
> today I was thinking about the gcc compiler. I run a source 
> distribution (Gentoo Linux), and found out that simultaneous 
> compilation of multiple packages actually takes longer than compiling 
> them in sequence, because of scheduling overhead.
> Then I asked myself: why does gcc not compile multiple source files in 
> one go, using threads? This reduces overhead and is still quicker, 
> mainly because for example header files only have to be compiled once, 
> and inter-source file dependencies can be resolved at an earlier 
> stage, and all the other possible optimizations you guys can think of.
> I realise that this would mean a huge rewrite, if not a terrible 
> "start from scratch". However, it would (IMHO) change compiling 
> forever...
>
> That's it for my wild idea. Whatever your answer, thank you guys for 
> this brilliant piece of work.
>
> Cheers,
>
> Simon

Hi Simon,

I think this is basically what the compile server work being done by 
Apple sets out to do.

There is a paper on it at:
http://per.bothner.com/papers/GccSummit03-slides/

The mailing list archive should turn up some related posts as well.

Cheers,
Alex.