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Aucbvax.6808 fa.info-vax utzoo!decvax!ucbvax!info-vax Mon Apr 19 19:05:18 1982 Vax compilers >From GJC@MIT-MC Mon Apr 19 18:57:23 1982 [Beware, this note talks about both VMS and Unix, and assumes either background information or willingness to do a little research on the part of the reader.]

For some background on the technology used in the DEC language implementations on the VAX see Wulf's "Design of an Optimizing Compiler." For background on Unix compiler technology see the Aho & Ulman "dragon book." As the Unix people talk about the Fortran optimization issue in terms of "we are working on adding an optimization pass to the compiler," well, it is enough to say that the background info is useful in evaluating statements of this kind.

Other things to consider include operating system support for things such as sharable (in the pure-page mapping sense) libraries of fortran and other language routines. Since commonly used graphics and numerical routines do tend to be large (featurefull), sharability of code called through the procedure-call mechanism becomes an important performance consideration. The Unix mechanism for sharability works through communication via pipeline, not procedure-call, this an understandable developement given the pdp-11 architecture. (I'm not lambasting the pipelines other uses of course!).

-gjc

p.s. Investigate the Eunice route.

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