[fpc-devel] Const optimization is a serious bug

[Hans-Peter Diettrich]

Chad Berchek schrieb:

> Wow, thanks for the insults guys. I didn't realize I was so stupid.

Waking up? ;-)

> You missed my point too, BTW. According to the link given:
> 
> "A constant argument is passed by reference if its size is larger than a 
> pointer."

People like you should not read such detailed explanations, which they 
tend to misinterpret :-(

> So you always know what the size of a pointer is? If I have this record:
> 
> TMyRec = record
>   I: Integer;
> end;
> 
> Is that passed by value or ref? Is someone compiling on 32-bit or 64? 
> You don't know, and neither does anyone. And that is my point about why 
> having it defined is important.

NACK. Most languages have some vague specifications, like the size of 
int or Integer. This is *intentional*, and every coder should write his 
code in a way, that it works under all allowed circumstances.


> I guess my brain is way to tiny to get past the notion that a "write 
> once, compile anywhere" programming language should be defined in such a 
> way that the meaning of the program doesn't spontaneously change 
> depending on the compilation platform.

It's up to YOU to make your code behave properly on every platform. If 
you assume e.g. a specific byte order, your code can crash on any other 
platform, regardless of the programming language you choose.

DoDi