On Thu, Jan 8, 2009 at 6:46 AM, Andrei Alexandrescu <[email protected]> wrote: > Bill Baxter wrote: >> >> On Thu, Jan 8, 2009 at 5:54 AM, Walter Bright >> <[email protected]> wrote: >>> >>> 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. >> >> You mean massless points? Or was that deliberate? > > I think there were two jokes actually: frictionless brakes (used instead of > e.g. frictionless pulleys) which is an oxymoron, and a pun on point masses > (objects that can be approximated by a point).
Hmmm. Oh yeh. I'm gonna claim lack of my first morning cup o coffee as my excuse for missing that. Cute. --bb
