[m-dev.] proposal: remove hlc_nest and hl_nest grades

[Zoltan Somogyi]

On Thu, 31 Aug 2017 14:13:25 +1000 (AEST), Julien Fischer <jfischer at opturion.com> wrote:
> > If not, and if we *do* delete the hlc_nest grades, then we should
> > simplify the MLDS backend. At the moment, we always generate MLDS code
> > with nested functions, which ml_elim_nested.m then hoists out. Having
> > the code generator generate the functions in their non-nested form
> > directly would be simpler and faster, partly because it wouldn't have
> > to cater to ml_elim_nested.m's limitations.
> 
> That's one of the reasons I suggested removing them.  In fact, IIRC
> ml_elim_nested.m is actually a bit of a performance bottleneck on
> large programs.

I have been thinking about generating flattened MLDS code directly, not
via ml_elim_nested.m. It looks to be far from easy, and I just measured
ml_elim_nested as taking about 1% of the compiler's runtime on tools/speedtest.
At that rate, that change does not seem to be all that worthwhile. Do you,
or anyone else, have some test cases for which the compiler takes substantially
longer in ml_elim_nested.m?

Zoltan.