4 ms·

Depends on the programming language. A good question is why we don't have more optimizable languages in mainstream use.

• flohofwoe 4mo ago
  Are there any programming languages which change the data layout beyond naively sorting struct members by alignment? (which at best helps with reducing padding bytes but can be either good or bad for performance, depending on the code which accesses the data).
  • londons_explore 4mo ago
    One simple optimization is to change arrays of struts into struts of arrays. To my knowledge, nothing even makes those changes, despite them being safe and having a huge potential performance benefit.
    • flohofwoe 4mo ago
      Now that you mention it... :) Zig has MultiArrayList in the stdlib which does the SoA transform via comptime: https://ziglang.org/documentation/master/std/#std.multi_array_list.MultiArrayList https://ziglang.org/documentation/master/std/#std.multi_arra... Zig also sorts struct members by size/alignment, but has two escape hatches ('extern struct' which is for C compatibility, and 'packed struct' which offers an explicit bit-by-bit memory layout). AFAIK Odin and Jai offer the SoA transform as specialized language features, e.g. in Odin: https://odin-lang.org/docs/overview/#soa-data-types https://odin-lang.org/docs/overview/#soa-data-types I'd still always want such data layout transforms as an explicit language feature though, not the compiler making this decision for me.
  • pillmillipedes 4mo ago
    various SQLs and APLs come to mind :) the industry still has a lot to learn from them both
  • fulafel 4mo ago
    Halide comes to mind (though it a DSL and not a full independent language). I wonder if Futhark does? Eg https://futhark-lang.org/student-projects/pedersen-nelin-msc-thesis.pdf https://futhark-lang.org/student-projects/pedersen-nelin-msc...
• inigyou 4mo ago
  FORTRAN is used for a lot of numerical algorithms - today! installed on your computer right now in some library! - because it optimizes better than C because it doesn't have pointers.
  • fc417fc802 4mo ago
    As I understand it most of the difference can be made up by adding the restrict qualifier to everything in C.