[fpc-devel] Kit's development progress and research

[J. Gareth Moreton]

Hi everyone,

I've still got pure functions on my books, and I've been looking around 
the node system that the compiler uses, especially pass 1. My main 
forte, which is probably also my weakness because I like going on wild 
goose chases, is looking for ways to optimise a process.  One thing I've 
noticed in the node pass is how often nodes are duplicated and 
destroyed, often without actually changing their contents, just their 
position in the tree.  For example, with the 'pass_1' and 'simplify' 
calls, things like "result := getcopy" in order to trigger another run 
of the pass, since the original always gets destroyed if result is not nil.

One solution I've found, that I'm researching the effectiveness of, is 
using a reference count system, and a method to mark a node as reused 
(internally, just raises the reference count).  There's still room for 
improvement though, as I've only gained a 1% speed gain in the compiler 
so far (while confirming that the compiled code doesn't change).  There 
are some hazards though, like when 'left' and 'right' are set to nil in 
order to prevent them from being destroyed (because the current node is 
due to be destroyed but is preserved due to a reference count greater 
than 1).

In the meantime, I've found and fixed a couple of memory leaks in the 
form of commands like "right:=right.simplify(false);" - besides assuming 
the result of 'simplify' is not nil, the original contents of 'right' is 
never freed and gets leaked.

This'll be something I'll be writing a design and implementation spec 
when I'm done, assuming I can get a worthwhile speed boost. More than 
anything I'm looking for ways make sure pure functions are processed as 
quickly as possible and improving compiler speed without sacrificing 
efficiency.

Gareth aka. Kit


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