Re: quicksort and compiler optimization

[S. Alexander Jacobson]

On Fri, 8 May 1998, Fergus Henderson wrote:
> Note that consolidating multiple passes into single passes is not
> always a win.  For example, if your machine has 10 available registers,
> and each pass uses 8 of them, then combining the two passes may mean
> that some variables can longer fit in registers, which may lead to
> things being less efficient.

Isn't it somewhat unreasonable to expect the typical Haskell
programmer to know how many registers a particular target CPU has and for
that matter how many registers a particular algorithm actually uses?
Can't the compiler figure this one out?

-Alex-

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S. Alexander Jacobson                   i2x Media  
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