Path: csiph.com!weretis.net!feeder9.news.weretis.net!news.misty.com!news.iecc.com!.POSTED.news.iecc.com!nerds-end From: Stefan Monnier Newsgroups: comp.compilers Subject: Re: the death of optimization compiler Date: Fri, 16 Oct 2026 18:52:08 -0400 Organization: Compilers Central Sender: johnl%iecc.com Approved: comp.compilers@iecc.com Message-ID: <26-10-013@comp.compilers> References: <26-10-010@comp.compilers> <26-10-011@comp.compilers> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8" Injection-Info: gal.iecc.com; posting-host="news.iecc.com:2001:470:1f07:1126:0:676f:7373:6970"; logging-data="70056"; mail-complaints-to="abuse@iecc.com" Keywords: optimize Posted-Date: 17 Oct 2026 04:10:33 EDT X-submission-address: compilers@iecc.com X-moderator-address: compilers-request@iecc.com X-FAQ-and-archives: http://compilers.iecc.com In-Reply-To: <26-10-011@comp.compilers> (message from anton@mips.complang.tuwien.ac.at on Fri, 16 Oct 2026 10:41:59 +0000) Xref: csiph.com comp.compilers:3778 anton@mips.complang.tuwien.ac.at [2026-10-16 10:41:59] wrote: > It seems that we prefer to write executable programs from the start, > and either optimize them by applying transformations manually, or > fully automatic (using an optimizing compiler), not > semi-automatically. I guess one of the problems of the idea of > semi-automatic transformations is that the transformations are no > longer applicable after changes due to changes in requirements. So > you either want to apply the changes to the transformed program (and > when you transform it manually, and treat the transformed program as > the new source, you can easily apply changes to the transformed > program), or you want fully automatic transformation, even if you only > get a best-effort result. I often think about what it is that I want from my compilers. For 99% of my code, the compiler does a good enough job, but for the remaining case, I often would like to be able to state some specific property which I'd like to get, but often it's hard to state it clearly in terms of the source code in a way that will still make sense further down the compilation stages. === Stefan