Mailinglist Archive: opensuse-programming (84 mails)

[Jerry Feldman <gaf@xxxxxxx>]

On Tue, 31 Aug 2004 19:09:32 +0200
Michael Stevens <Michael.Stevens@xxxxxxxx> wrote:

> In terms of performance optimisation one of the biggest advantages
> Fortran has is the lack of pointers and therefore the lack off
> possible aliases. C/C++ compilers have to employ comlex alias
> optimisation analysis. Here C++ is significantly better then C.
> Reference types (instead of pointers), the use of 'const', and inline
> member functions all help the complier.
This is very true in context, but C++ is significantly more difficult to
optimize. Reference types,  const, and inline member functions certainly
have an advantage, but many commercial C compilers inline many common
library functions, such as strlen, strcpy, etc. 

Years ago, I used to avoid subscripts like the plague and use pointers
for performance. Today, I use and teach the use of subscripts because
subscripts allow better optimization than pointers. (And they improve
readability). Compiler writers tend to be much smarter than other
programmers as they will constantly remind you. 


-- 
Jerry Feldman <gaf@xxxxxxx>
Boston Linux and Unix user group
http://www.blu.org PGP key id:C5061EA9
PGP Key fingerprint:053C 73EC 3AC1 5C44 3E14 9245 FB00 3ED5 C506 1EA9