From owner-freebsd-chat Sun Aug 10 00:52:41 1997 Return-Path: Received: (from root@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.5/8.8.5) id AAA08741 for chat-outgoing; Sun, 10 Aug 1997 00:52:41 -0700 (PDT) Received: from dyson.iquest.net (dyson.iquest.net [198.70.144.127]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.5/8.8.5) with ESMTP id AAA08736 for ; Sun, 10 Aug 1997 00:52:37 -0700 (PDT) Received: (from root@localhost) by dyson.iquest.net (8.8.6/8.8.5) id CAA01811; Sun, 10 Aug 1997 02:52:21 -0500 (EST) From: "John S. Dyson" Message-Id: <199708100752.CAA01811@dyson.iquest.net> Subject: Re: variable sized arrays and gcc In-Reply-To: <199708100722.DAA03236@skynet.ctr.columbia.edu> from Bill Paul at "Aug 10, 97 03:22:28 am" To: wpaul@skynet.ctr.columbia.edu (Bill Paul) Date: Sun, 10 Aug 1997 02:52:21 -0500 (EST) Cc: chat@FreeBSD.ORG Reply-To: dyson@FreeBSD.ORG X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4ME+ PL31 (25)] MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: owner-freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG X-Loop: FreeBSD.org Precedence: bulk > > Is this a side-effect of GNU C and GNU C++ being joined together at > the hip, or did I just miss a memo somewhere? > I don't know if it is a direct side-effect of GNU C and C++ using the same backend -- however GCC has some really interesting features that could tend to lock-in the lazy programmer... It has ranges for switch statements, it can take the address of code labels, it has some really neat built-ins, etc... If you are very interested, I suggest reading the gcc manual packaged with most gcc distributions. I even bought a copy of the manual from FSF. (It is smaller than 8x10 laser printer output, and more convienient.) If you don't have the facilities to typeset the manual (Tex, etc.) online, I am willing to make a .ps or .dvi (readable with dvips) available to you. I have never done it before, but I might be able to produce a .pdf??? The biggest gripe that I have about GCC's added features is that I really miss them when using a compiler without 'em. I still wish the compiler had more tricks up it's sleeve in the X86 optimization dept. The X86 optimized compiler project improves things a bit, but there is still alot that can be done in the register allocation dept, regarding saving regs around basic blocks and loops... John