4 Apr
2006
4 Apr
'06
8:25 p.m.
Fred Cisin wrote:
???
ahem. some of the lisp compilers I've seen are pretty smart and
generate really nice asm code. some heavily hacked on by people like
RMS, who's written other compilers you might have used.
careful what you say about them lispers. some of them have been around
a long time...
-brad
more on topic, good compilers spend a lot of time optimizing the 'tree'
of processed source long before generating any code. And most they days
spend a lot of time in the 'register transfer' stage working on the data
flow before writing any code. By the time they get around to emitting
code it's pretty straight forward and doesn't rely on nuances of
instructions. a gross oversimplification, but you get the point.
>
"Nobody programs in assembly any more, nor ever will again"
> - Clancy and Harvey (UC Berkeley lower division undergrad CS)
On Tue, 4 Apr 2006, Don North wrote:
What about compiler writers, aren't they
effectively writing assembly code?
I don't know how you could write a good compiler without knowing how to
write good assembly code.
They are Lisp/Scheme fanatics. I doubt that they really know where their
compilers come from.