:> > >[Do Ada compilers really generate better code than C compilers for similar
:> > >source code? -John]
:> >
:> > I have one anecdotal data point that says no.  While working for my
:> > ....
:> > This is of course a single data point, probably obsolete.
:>
:> The Ada in question was being compiled with a 1988-vintage compiler
:> (Verdix) which wasn't all that great (if you claim it was awful, I won't
:> argue).  We never compiled with any optimization at all (-O0), since it
:> didn't work, ......

For what it's worth, in 1994, Verdix optimizers for SPARC and 680x0 would
create a bug in about one percent or less of the source files.  (One cute
bug was to optimize away a loop control variable that wasn't referenced
within the loop!)  What irritated me even more than compiler bugs was
that people would refuse to use the optimizer on any file.

I always figured it to turn off the optimizer for one out of a hundred
files was a lot easier than some of the code contortions people would
write for the sake of "hand-optimizing".

Especially since I demonstrated that the optimizer resulted in a speed up
of TWENTY times on some of our product's capabilities.

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Hughes Defense Communications (MS 10-41)                 Home: 219-471-7206
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