From owner-freebsd-hackers Mon Sep 14 11:06:50 1998 Return-Path: Received: (from majordom@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) id LAA14889 for freebsd-hackers-outgoing; Mon, 14 Sep 1998 11:06:50 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from owner-freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG) Received: from smtp04.primenet.com (smtp04.primenet.com [206.165.6.134]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) with ESMTP id LAA14871 for ; Mon, 14 Sep 1998 11:06:47 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from tlambert@usr05.primenet.com) Received: (from daemon@localhost) by smtp04.primenet.com (8.8.8/8.8.8) id LAA20877; Mon, 14 Sep 1998 11:06:31 -0700 (MST) Received: from usr05.primenet.com(206.165.6.205) via SMTP by smtp04.primenet.com, id smtpd020828; Mon Sep 14 11:06:29 1998 Received: (from tlambert@localhost) by usr05.primenet.com (8.8.5/8.8.5) id LAA18220; Mon, 14 Sep 1998 11:06:24 -0700 (MST) From: Terry Lambert Message-Id: <199809141806.LAA18220@usr05.primenet.com> Subject: Re: Unused functions To: mike@smith.net.au (Mike Smith) Date: Mon, 14 Sep 1998 18:06:24 +0000 (GMT) Cc: graphix@iastate.edu, tlambert@primenet.com, freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG In-Reply-To: <199809140114.SAA08497@word.smith.net.au> from "Mike Smith" at Sep 13, 98 06:14:32 pm X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4 PL25] MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: owner-freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG > In most object formats, reference information is kept on a per-object > basis (ie. per .o file). Keeping this sort of information on any > smaller granularity would lead to an insane increase in the complexity > and corresponding performance reduction of the link phase. ...and corresponding reduction in time for *re*linking, and reduction in size of the resulting binaries. Basically, it's a compiler-write-benchmark-less-work-to-write thing. > This is why an experienced programmer will group only related items in > a given object. Yes. This is why. > It allows the programmer and the C scoping rules to > work together to determine what should be associated and what need not. Instead of the compiler merely calculating hamiltonian cycles in the dependency graph to do dead code elimination. Terry Lambert terry@lambert.org --- Any opinions in this posting are my own and not those of my present or previous employers. To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-hackers" in the body of the message