Subject: Re: Compiler timings on varous MVII NetBSDs etc.
To: emanuel stiebler <emu@ecubics.com>
From: NetBSD Bob <nbsdbob@weedcon1.cropsci.ncsu.edu>
List: port-vax
Date: 01/22/2001 16:05:00
> > Is it time that we start seriously thinking about using a different
> > compiler?
> 
> Probably think/play with all this nice GCC configuration flags first ?
> 
> Gcc can optimize for size/speed/....
> Probably the flags are not right for small machines.

I dunno if the answer is new compilers or adjusting existing ones.
I do know the PeeCee minset of more ram is a null approach on baby
VAXentoyz, especially low ram machines.  I can just imagine what
the I386 machines feel like, these days, if they are running a real
386/20 with 8M ram.....(:+{{...

I raise the issues, mostly because I am feeling their load on the
MVII.  You really have to bring up a NetBSD-1.2 and a NetBSD-1.5
and an Ultrix 4.2, side by side on the same hardware and boot from
each, to get a feel for what I am saying.  The Feeping Creaturitis
has crept in so slowly, that just being current does not show what
has happened.

I noticed a gcc-1.36 for the vax in the Reno contrib tarball.
I am wondering if that might be usable as a starting point.
The old gcc's are fairly fast on my old SunOS toyz, and I use
gcc-1.42 to bootstrap gcc-2.58 on them.  Dumb, simple, ugly,
but it is fast and it works.

Since I have all the ``antique unix'' bits from SCO, can anyone
recommend a particular C compiler from which to start some play?
Is the pcc in net2 the same as earlier versions?

I do find that we have generally become crippled to the gcc mindset,
good, bad or ugly as that may be.  A prime example of that is trying
to compile a TeX suite on one of the freebie BSD's.  Gotta have gcc,
gotta have gmake, gotta have, yadayadayada, just to get it up.  Then
I unroll my old TeX tarball I have been carrying around for a dozen
years or more, and even 4.3BSD or Ultrix or freebie *BSD/gnu-style
eat it up fine.

I think it is becoming a coding issue, and it is getting to the point
where it is affecting efficiency in the kernel/compilers/everywhere.
It just takes a S L O O O W machine like my MVII critters to set it
happen.

Somehow we need some improvement in this arena or the older VAXentoyz
won't stay afloat, anymore, and 1.4.x will be the end of the line for
them.

There I go muttering in my beer again.....(:+{{....

Thanks

Bob