From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.3 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00,INVALID_MSGID autolearn=no autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 103376,ef33c33c4f98bde1 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public From: Peter Milliken Subject: Re: Compiler for Z80/6510 Date: 1999/11/25 Message-ID: <383DC86C.19A6F176@australia.boeing.com>#1/1 X-Deja-AN: 553109500 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: nntp@news.boeing.com (Boeing NNTP News Access) X-Nntp-Posting-Host: 205.175.231.237 References: <383c6fed.458467@news.fiam.net> <81k67s$47l$1@nnrp1.deja.com> X-Accept-Language: en Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Organization: Boeing Australia Limited Mime-Version: 1.0 Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Date: 1999-11-25T00:00:00+00:00 List-Id: G'Day Robert, Robert Dewar wrote: > True, most people cannot write efficient assembler language, > for any machine. And what you say is of course true for them, > but the idea that wonderful modern compilers can generate > amazing code better than skilled humans can is just plain wrong. Would you care to comment then on the paper written by Lawlis and Elam which was published in Tri-Ada '92 titled "Ada Outperforms Assembly: A Case Study" where, in point 6, they draw conclusions such as: compiler optimisation has reached such a state of the art that it can implement "hundreds of heuristics from a library of knowledge in this area of technology" and generate code which can "beat assembly code in both size and performance"? I am curious, on the one hand we have this paper (advertised in the Ada Home page) and on the other hand, experienced compiler writers such as yourself. These statements seem to contradict each other. I do not have any experience in compiler writing but I have been prepared to accept the paper at it's face value (having no way to confirm or deny :-)). Did Lawlis and Elam get it wrong? Were they correct for their particular circumstances and environment? I have shown the paper to non Ada software engineers and received various responses, the worst being open ridicule and statements that the paper must be a pure fabrication. Thanks Peter