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Why is Pascal better at compiling performance?

• jodrellblank 6y ago
  Nicklaus Wirth cared about not wasting machine resources. He also wrote “a plea for lean software”: > “Abstract: Software's girth has surpassed its functionality, largely because hardware advances make this possible. The way to streamline software lies in disciplined methodologies and a return to the essentials. The paper discusses some causes of "fat software" and considers the Oberon system whose primary goal was to show that software can be developed with a fraction of the memory capacity and processor power usually required, without sacrificing flexibility, functionality, or user convenience.”
• mamcx 6y ago
  Is made to be fast. Also, C/C++/rust is made to be slow. One recent article that touch it (for rust): https://pingcap.com/blog/rust-compilation-model-calamity https://pingcap.com/blog/rust-compilation-model-calamity
  • blackrock 6y ago
    It seems like one problem with rust is that it is a single threaded compiler. We’ve reached the ends of fast CPUs. To gain performance improvements, we need to use multiple cores, and process it in parallel. I wonder if this is an opportunity for github or Microsoft to host a cloud compiler? Just check in your code to github, and the cloud compiler will compile it across thousands of servers, all running in parallel. Cost: $100/month per engineer.
    • mamcx 6y ago
      > It seems like one problem with rust is that it is a single threaded compiler. That could be a symptom but is not the root cause.Is just that the syntax/features choices (as choiced!) are hostile to fast performance. Even going parallel, I bet a pascal compiler will beat it overly, because you can give rockets to turtles but are still turtles...