06-07-2010, 05:13 PM
This does raise a question, Boriel:
Could the compiler recognize a case of dealing with, say, a one dimensional array, and handle that completely differently - say by hanging onto the index in a register (or register pair)? The overwhelming majority of arrays are one dimensional - and it's of course possible in a cross-compiler to build in optimized options for different cases. (we don't have the memory limit for this sort of thing we have for an on-spectrum compiler!)
Sure, if someone wants an 8 dimensional array, good luck to them - the compiler handles that. (Which is utterly staggering, by the way. This is the most flexible compiler for the spectrum by far!). But, having said that, since probably 90% of arrays are single dimension, I'd say the possibility of making that a special case the compiler creates the tightest code for, might be worthwhile.
Could the compiler recognize a case of dealing with, say, a one dimensional array, and handle that completely differently - say by hanging onto the index in a register (or register pair)? The overwhelming majority of arrays are one dimensional - and it's of course possible in a cross-compiler to build in optimized options for different cases. (we don't have the memory limit for this sort of thing we have for an on-spectrum compiler!)
Sure, if someone wants an 8 dimensional array, good luck to them - the compiler handles that. (Which is utterly staggering, by the way. This is the most flexible compiler for the spectrum by far!). But, having said that, since probably 90% of arrays are single dimension, I'd say the possibility of making that a special case the compiler creates the tightest code for, might be worthwhile.