[fpc-devel] Class field reordering

[Jonas Maebe]

Hi,

I've implemented an optimization that reorders the instance fields of  
Delphi-style classes (and only of Delphi-style classes) to minimise  
memory gaps caused by alignment differences and odd sizes. The effect  
is the same as when you would change the order of the fields in the  
source code to achieve this effect.

In general, I think this should be safe since unlike records and  
TP-style objects, a Delphi class is normally never blockwritten to  
disk or so. There is a switch to disable this transformation, but I'm  
wondering whether anyone sees a problem with enabling it by default  
when -O2 or higher is used.

It works fine with at least the compiler and Lazarus without any ill  
effects, saving a small amount of memory for both (about 2.5MB on 87MB  
for the Darwin/x86-64 compiler compiling itslf, and 2.5MB on 62.7MB  
for a Carbon/i386 Lazarus right after startup and loading some source  
files).


Jonas

PS: a similar reordering could be performed for local variables,  
although the implementation would be quite different. Additionally,  
different kinds of reordering, e.g. targeting cache improvements by  
putting fields/local variables often used together next to each other,  
could also be implemented in the future.