From mboxrd@z Thu Jan  1 00:00:00 1970
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From: Robert A Duff <bobduff@world.std.com>
Subject: Re: Compiler for Z80/6510
Date: 1999/11/28
Message-ID: <wccyabi4iib.fsf@world.std.com>#1/1
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Sender: bobduff@world.std.com (Robert A Duff)
References: <NBBBJNOMKDIAJALCEFIJAEMFDFAA.rleif@rleif.com>
 <01bf38cb$be9b2b60$022a6282@dieppe> <81putt$sa8$1@nnrp1.deja.com>
Organization: The World Public Access UNIX, Brookline, MA
Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada
Date: 1999-11-28T00:00:00+00:00
List-Id: <comp.lang.ada>

Robert Dewar <robert_dewar@my-deja.com> writes:

>...The thread is not about whether it is
> reasonable to write anything in assembler, it is the interesting
> technical issue of whether compilers can do a better job than
> expert humans writing assembler language. ...

I think that's a meaningless question, unless you're willing to specify
how much time and money one is allowed to spend.  Is it fair game to
write a brute-force optimizer that takes exponential time (in the size
of the program)?  Is it fair to give the programmer an arbitrarily long
time to think about it?  Are you willing to totally rewrite 100,000
lines of code when one minor change is made?  How big is the program
anyway?  It seems to me that unless there are limits, the question is
pointless.

- Bob