I am not sure about if 2 actually would hurt performance in the real world. Remember the whole "must appear to be in order" thing. If the compiler knows that it

I am not sure about if 2 actually would hurt performance in the real world. Remember the whole "must appear to be in order" thing. If the compiler knows that it doesn't change things if they are out of order, it's free to rearrange them. Note: things like this are part of the potential advantages of static linking.