3 ms·
While I agree that the speed of the output executable is more important than the speed of the compiler, the speed of the compiler is also important. If the com
by gvb 17y ago
While I agree that the speed of the output executable is more important than the speed of the compiler, the speed of the compiler is also important. If the compiler is slow, it waste lots of developers' time.
When a developer has to wait for the compiler, he not only is waiting, but there are also secondary effects: he loses concentration, browses HN, talks to coworkers, etc. http://xkcd.com/303/ http://xkcd.com/303/
Probably the most the revolutionary thing about the Borland compilers, for instance, was that they compiled instantly compared to their competition.
- doty 17y agoAlso, self-hosting your compiler in itself can provide a great performance suite; compilers can be fairly complex things and they do memory and cpu-intensive work, so the speed with which compilers compile themselves is a useful benchmark.