Sean Kelly wrote:
I keep thinking I should put on a "Compiler Construction" seminar!
You should. The academic courses do a good job with theory and
general application, but that isn't quite the same as one based on
practical experience.
That's true. I learned the theory taking a compiler construction course
at Standford, and then tried to apply it. It turns out that there's a
lot they left out <g> that's needed to actually get those optimizations
to work.
Loop induction variables was a big one, because the theory never takes
into account the fact that you're replacing a signed loop index with an
unsigned loop pointer. Oops!
It's like in physics class you're always dealing with frictionless
brakes and pointless masses.
