C compile time

[Scott Robert Ladd]

Dara Hazeghi wrote:
 > Scott, I added -g to the table. Do you consider -pg
 > particularly important (from the real world)?

Given that -pg has little or no influence on compile time, the question 
is moot.

Going back to -g for a moment: According to your tables, the overall 
compile time has not increased precipitously for debug-style compiles. 
While optimized compile times do indeed get slower with successive 
versions of GCC, such compiles are only rarely made in my experience. 
During development, the vast, vast majority of my compiles do not 
include any optimization options or set them to -O0.

Therefore, I am somewhat confused as to why there is so much stress over 
increasing compile times for optimized builds. I can see it as an issue 
for very large executable images, such as the Linux kernel, or for 
people who design and build source-based GNU/Linux distros like Gentoo. 
But for the vast majority of working programmers, I simply don't see why 
optimized compile times are such an issue.

I'm more than open to illumination on this topic.

-- 
Scott Robert Ladd
Coyote Gulch Productions (http://www.coyotegulch.com)