Re: Language rewrite - any success stories?

On Mon, 28 Jan 2008 22:43:00 -0800, coppro wrote:

[on c++ compilation speed]

I'm gonna be a jerk and enamour

<pedant> elaborate? </pedant>

on ways you can improve your compilation
speed rather than language changes. The first is precompiled headers. If
you have g++ compile a header file with the option "-x c++-header", the
resultant file will have the extension .gch and can be used to
significantly improve build speed. You just #include naturally and then
the header will be used instead. However, you can only use ONE
precompiled header per compile, so you must choose the header wisely
(project-wide stuff like global definitions and stuff is a good choice).
The inclusion also has to be the first non-preprocessor thing to occur
in the file.

Yes, I realise that there are tools to speed up compilation. For example,
I used to find (using pure C on windows) that bcc was a bajillion times
faster than djgpp. G++ isn't the fastest compiler out there. VC8 seems
quicker, on windows.

But I'm still working around the problem that C++ (and reputedly java)
uses a lot of boiler plate code. I'm more looking for a solution to make
the language do the grunt work for me (lisp macros).

That's the reason I moved from C to C++ - I got a fair way into making C
into an object oriented language (via tables of pointers to functions,
casting pointers to structs to void * and back), before I realised that
my time would be better spent using an object-oriented language from the
get-go.


Personally, though, if you're changing languages, it's probably a lot
like making a new RL, unless they are very similar (e.g. C -> C++, or C
++ -> Java on a good day). C++ to Common Lisp is definitely not an easy
change in any way.

Yes, and I'm scared of "second system effect" - making the second system
so generic and extensible that it never actually achieves anything.


I've seen programs go through language changes before, though, and often
for the better. But it's a painstaking process, and it can be a very
long time before you get back to where you were before.

But I'm nowhere at the moment - I haven't released anything :)
Unlike Krice, I realise that until I actually release a playable *game*
any talk is just handwaving.


A
.

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