[fpc-devel] Question on updating FPC packages

[Marco van de Voort]

Op 2019-10-27 om 10:46 schreef Florian Klämpfl:
> Am 27.10.19 um 10:27 schrieb Michael Van Canneyt:
>> If you genuinely believe that micro-optimization changes can make a 
>> difference:
>>
>> Submit patches. 
>
> As said: I am against applying them. Why? They clutter code and after 
> all, they make assumptions about the current target which not might be 
> always valid. And time testing them is much better spent in improving 
> the compiler and then all code benefits. Another point: for example 
> explicit inline increases normally code size (not always but often), 
> so it is against the use of -Os. Applying inline manually on umpteen 
> subroutines makes no sense. Better improve auto inlining.

Auto inlining is also no panacea.   It only works with heuristics, and 
is thus only as good as a formula of the heuristic.

Changing calling conventions, vectorizing, loops all complicates that, 
and it will never be perfect, and a change here will lead to a problem 
there etc.

If you know a routine can evaluate to one instruction in most cases, I 
don't see anything wrong with just marking it as such.