[fpc-devel] Statistics on compiling the Free Pascal compiler for Win32

[Paul Robinson]

I wanted to actually test that the Free Pascal compiler - as originally written - would compile on my machine.  (Note for comp.compilers readers, the Free Pascal compiler is self-hosting, it is written in its own language, unlike, say, the GNU Pascal Compiler which is a front-end for the GNU Compiler Collection (the C++ compiler) and the GNU Pascal Compiler is written in C..


Compiling using the DOS IDE, I brought up the file PP.PAS, declared it as the primary file, for compiler switches, I entered into the IDE the following:

Win32  I386  cpu32bitaddr

Each time it did not find a Pascal Unit I cheated, looked for the file and copied it into the 'compiler' directory rather than try to set the directories in the IDE because I was having trouble or doing something wrong and it didn't find the files.  So then, once it stopped complaining, I had it do a 'build' to do a complete scratch build of the compiler.  This is on a Windows XP Professional 32-Bit OS on a 64-bit machine - Dell Optiplex 760 - 2.2 GHZ processor, 3 GB of ram and more than 1.4 terabytes of free disk space.  This machine was bought as refurbished about 18 months ago for about $200 and had the extra disk and memory added later, adding about another $200 to its price (I got a good deal on a 2tb drive for $89; prices went up nearly 100% about 6 months later.).


This was the result, I've copied off the results box shown by the FPIDE:

One warning: 
   aasmtai.pas(396,11) Warning: Constructor should be public


Main file: C:\..\compiler\pp.pas
Done.
Target: Win32 for i386
Line number:    225     Total lines:      261804
Used memory: 417612K    Allocated memory:  25792K
Total errors:     0     Compile time:       13.9s

        Compile successful: Press any key

From the directories it creates 203 PPUs (the internal object library file used by Free Pascal to store Units).   The compiler itself is 11,727,679 bytes.

I deleted all ppu files and the exe file and re-ran build, and this time it took exactly 14 seconds.  Typing its name at the DOS prompt causes it to list all of the options and quit, indicating it is operational. 

In short, it compiled a program containing a total of about 262,000 lines of Pascal code in 14 seconds, which comes out to a compilation rate of around 1.12 million lines of code per minute.   So basically I, just like anyone else, for about the same amount as an ordinary person's salary for a week, can own a machine that runs basically at what was mainframe speed levels a few years ago.




The Lessons of history teach us - if they teach us anything - that no one learns the lessons that history teaches us.


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