meulenbr@cstw01.UUCP (Frans Meulenbroeks) (01/02/89)
Happy New Year! I don't know if this is the proper place to drop this, but I'm being told that gnu.gcc is not a good place either and perhaps someone can do something with this. I've been impressed by the inline function capability of gcc. However, since I have quite a lot small library functions the gain from this is nil. I was wondering if it was possible to create a smart linker which could do some global optimisation (like making small functions inline, and perhaps other optimisations). I don't know if things like an optimising linker exist. anyway, I'd like to drop the following questions: Is such a linker feasible, or am I dreaming? Is there interest in such a tool and would it be worth the effort? To what kind can one make use of the gcc optimisation code? One small unrelated question: Does someone have a free fpp library for the 68881, or do I have to craft my own? Thanks, -- Frans Meulenbroeks (meulenbr@cst.prl.philips.nl) Centre for Software Technology ( or try: ...!mcvax!philmds!prle!cst!meulenbr)
rms@WHEATIES.AI.MIT.EDU (Richard Stallman) (01/03/89)
I have heard of systems with such linkers. However, "linker" may be a misnomer; it really involves writing some sort of intermediate code into "object files", and finishing the compilation of the entire program all at once at the end. It might be possible to extend GCC this way, but it would be a lot of work. I don't know how much faster the output would run. I don't plan to work on this, so feel free.
dac@f.gp.cs.cmu.edu (Daniel Christian) (01/06/89)
Is it possible to create "libraries" of inline functions? On the same note, could you also precompile header files? It seems like both of these would require the compiler to load in some sort of RTL file at compile time. It would then incorporate the code, optimize, and produce perfectly normal object files. I have been working with X11 server development. Many of the server files pull in 4000 lines of headers (with lots of machine dependent conditionals) before they get to your code. Precompiled headers would be wonderful here. It would also make lots of sense for math libraries and the like to be pulled inline. Currently, you would have to include all the sources before the compiler could inline things. If you had RTL math libraries, the compiler could inline the "pre-compiled" functions quickly. Just a thought, -Dan Christian dac@ri.cmu.edu --