Mail Archives: djgpp/1997/07/28/09:59:25
On Tue, 22 Jul 1997, Erik Max Francis wrote:
> DrkWatr wrote:
>
> > I was wondering if there is a program that will
> > optimisize your c source, and still let you view it as c source? Thus
> > allowing me to learn better programming habits.
>
> Erik Max Francis wrote:
>
> I know of no such beast. Optimization is generally done at the compiler
> level, not the source level.
>
> Furthermore, such a beast would probably not be all _that_ much use.
> Optimization at the source level is highly dependent on the compiler and
> platform (for instance, the sizes of the fundamental types) that you're
> using. Optimization is better left to the compiler, which 1. is
> generating the code in the first place, and 2. has a far better idea of
> the environment than any generalized program can.
I don't think that DrkWatr is looking for that kind of 'Optimization' but
something that will help him to write better "C". You know the kind of
common wisdom that says:
for(;;){} is better than while(1){}
p=&ar[0]; .... p++ is better than i=0; ... ar[i++];
etc. Sorry to have to agree that there is no such beasty. He needs to
get a good "C" book and then keep in mind that many of these 'common
wisdom' optimizations are made unneccessary by a good optimizer such as
GCC/DJGPP has. Indeed in both of the examples I gave the code GCC
generates is at least as good for the 'bad' code as for the 'good' code.
Art S. Kagel, kagel AT bloomberg DOT com
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