Re: the death of optimization compiler

From	Derek M Jones <derek@knosof.co.uk>
Newsgroups	comp.compilers
Subject	Re: the death of optimization compiler
Date	2026-10-17 20:42 +0100
Organization	Compilers Central
Message-ID	<26-10-016@comp.compilers> (permalink)
References	<26-10-010@comp.compilers> <26-10-011@comp.compilers> <26-10-013@comp.compilers>

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Stefan,

> 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.

I think that programming language could become a build time option
https://shape-of-code.com/2026/10/11/programming-language-choice-is-becoming-a-build-option/

Why not specify language constructs specific to your case
and modify the compiler to map these to the appropriate
optimised form?

Ok, at the moment, even with coding agents, this still requires
a decent chunk of work.

This time next year, it might on the way to being the norm.

--
Derek M. Jones           Evidence-based software engineering
blog:https://shape-of-code.com
[This reminds me of the extensible languages like EL/1 and IMP72 that were
popular in the 1970s.  They ended up being unusable because every program
was in a different language. -John]

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the death of optimization compiler Anton Antimo <anton@safunu.org> - 2026-10-12 18:17 -0300
  Re: the death of optimization compiler anton@mips.complang.tuwien.ac.at - 2026-10-16 10:41 +0000
    Re: the death of optimization compiler tfb <tfb@work.it.out> - 2026-10-16 17:52 +0000
    Re: the death of optimization compiler Stefan Monnier <monnier@iro.umontreal.ca> - 2026-10-16 18:52 -0400
      Re: the death of optimization compiler Derek M Jones <derek@knosof.co.uk> - 2026-10-17 20:42 +0100
    Re: the death of optimization compiler Stefan Monnier <monnier@iro.umontreal.ca> - 2026-10-16 18:47 -0400

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