Re: Use pragma INLINE or not? (SUMMARY)

[stluka@software.org (Fred Stluka)]

As promised, here is a summary of responses I got via e-mail.


In general the e-mailed responses spanned the same range as 
the posted ones, with most people agreeing that you shouldn't
INLINE unless you are sure you need to.

In a time-critical environment, where you are *sure* of where
the bottlenecks are, then you can probably do a better job
than the compiler.  Otherwise, write all the code without 
INLINE, then use a performance analyzer to determine where to 
add them for maximum effect.

Other points worth mentioning:

  From:  gdfwc3!jesmith@texsun.Central.Sun.COM (Jesse Smith)

     The VAX/VMS Ada 2.1 compiler switch
               /OPTIMIZE=(TIME,INLINE:MAXIMAL)
     made code run 20% faster than just:
               /OPTIMIZE=TIME

  From:  Eric_Alan_Christiansen@cup.portal.com

     INLINE causes problems during development:

          - Obscures code a symbolic debugger, but if disabled
            with a command line switch, causes warnings to be
            generated, obscuring other more relevant messages.

          - Creates dependencies of callers on bodies, not just
            specs, forcing more recompilations.

     Also, inlining is sometimes desired for a routine when called
     by caller A (for speed), but not when called by B (for space
     or for reduction in dependencies).  INLINE applies always or
     never.  Compilers may internally do a better job.

Thanks for the input,
--Fred
-- 
Fred Stluka                               Internet: stluka@software.org
Software Productivity Consortium          UUNet:    ...!uunet!software!stluka
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