[fpc-devel] Optimizing unused return values of inline functions

[Michael Van Canneyt]

On Sun, 20 Aug 2017, Benito van der Zander wrote:

> Hi,
>
> why does fpc not remove the calculation of the return value of inline 
> functions, when the return value is unused?
>
> For example
>
> type TUtility = class
>  function doSomething: TUtility; inline;
> end;
>
>
> It is a popular pattern to add result := self; to _every_ method (or result 
> := @self in objects/records), so it can be chained as 
> dosomething().dosomething().dosomething(),.....
> but one cannot use it with fpc efficiently, when it inserts too many 
> unnecessary instructions

A strange statement.

This pattern is not inherently efficient. Why should it be ?

It's just something that boiled over from other languages and some people
see it as a nifty way of writing code.

Michael.