[mercury-users] Hints on Optimisation

[Ralph Becket]

I've read the papers that describe the various optimisations carried out
by the compiler, but it's not clear to me when or how deeply they are
applied.  I wonder if there are a few rules of thumb that could be used
to help the programmer decide when a particular piece of code is optimal,
wrt the compiler, or what the tradeoffs are when coding up an inner loop,
say.

For example, one thing I frequently want to do is wrap bits of `state' up
in some ADT, which typically means having something like a type with a
single constructor with a number of fields.  What is a good heuristic for
guessing when the compiler will `unbox' an instance of the ADT so one
can `update' the fields of the instance without creating a new boxed version
on the heap?  I'm sure I can think of several other optimisations that I'm 
unsure as to when and where they apply.

Cheers,

Ralph

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
mercury-users mailing list
post:  mercury-users at cs.mu.oz.au
administrative address: owner-mercury-users at cs.mu.oz.au
unsubscribe: Address: mercury-users-request at cs.mu.oz.au Message: unsubscribe
subscribe:   Address: mercury-users-request at cs.mu.oz.au Message: subscribe
--------------------------------------------------------------------------