Re: A couple of quick questions

[Florian Weimer <fw@deneb.enyo.de>]

* Dufr:

> Is the efficiency of the compiled code by penalized in any way by
> the putative bloat of the language?

Yes, for some features.  Exception handling tables increase the size
of the program even if they are not used because no exceptions are
thrown.  Run-time checks (such as overflow checks and array bounds
checks) are typically bloat which increases instruction cache pressure
and decreases effective execution speed.  Code for abort deferral is
automatically inserted by the compiler and slows down the program,
even if no asynchronous transfer of control ever occurs.

Proper compiler flags can eliminate these overheads, in some cases
without any ill effects or observable differences in behavior (not so
for array bounds checks, obviously).