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Early C compilers were not optimising compilers. The hardware was very limited. Although I would agree it was possible to design the language much better to av
by higerordermap 6y ago
Early C compilers were not optimising compilers. The hardware was very limited.
Although I would agree it was possible to design the language much better to avoid Null, most buffer overflows etc.., C was not designed to be good from PL standpoint. It was designed to write something and then evolved.
- morelisp 6y agoEarly C compilers were non-optimizing compilers because C is among the hardest languages to optimize, not because the hardware was limited. Frances Allen described C as a "serious regression" in language design which "destroyed our ability to advance the state of the art in automatic optimization" because of how its semantics blocked most known optimizing transformations.