RE: [Dev-C++] Use of const qualifier

[Ioannis V. <no...@ho...>]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: dev...@li... 
> [mailto:dev...@li...] On Behalf 
> Of Per Westermark
> Sent: Saturday, November 02, 2002 12:27 PM
> To: Abhijit Shylanath
> Cc: 'Dev-C++ Mailing List'
> Subject: Re: [Dev-C++] Use of const qualifier
> 
> 
> 1 - Declaring a function inline doesn't work for function pointers,
> or when writing mixed-language programss.

Usually yes. There is no rule however. For this reason, in C++ it is
better to pass a type argument with static member functions. Or use
function objects.



> 2 - Eliminating the function to remove the function call 
> obviously doesn't
> work either for same reason as above.
> 
> 3 - The link referenced below is written with DSP processors 
> in mind. Some
> optimization work. A lot of the suggestions are questionable on a
> general-purpose processor.


I am very busy these last days so i have no much time to post messages
on the list. Regarding efficiency & C++, the best thing one can do is to
use the high level constructs and do not bother about low level details.
So for example use strings and pass them by reference and do not bother
for the details.

Regarding C, the compiler can perform whatever optimisations it likes.
As a general rule one must try to avoid repeative function calls (like
calling the same function 1 million times). Regarding variables with
exception of large struct types, the time cost of creating and
destroying variables in nowadays machine can be ignored. For a large
struct, using a static struct variable can help. Again, one must think
of run time optimisations when he sees that his code is unacceptable
slow.

Like 

for(size_t  i=0; i<strlen(s); i++)
/* ... */


If the compiler is clever, it may avoid calling strlen(), strlen(s)
times. If we see that the code crawls (and only then), one can think of
optimisations like:

const size_t SLENGTH=strlen(s);

for(size_t i=0; i<SLENGTH; i++)
/* ... */


In general, do not think of optimising something without having a
problem with it. 

Also usually run-time optimisation adds space cost, and space
optimisation adds runtime cost.


Ioannis

* Ioannis Vranos
* Programming pages: http://www.noicys.freeurl.com
* Alternative URL: http://run.to/noicys