Re: [avr-gcc-list] Urgent Queries about AVR-GCC

[Neil Johnson]

Hi,

> Last time I checked (about 1-1/2 years ago) IAR slightly edged out GCC
> in code generation, but when linked with libraries GCC still won.  None
> of the other AVR compilers I checked (ICC and CV) came even close.

True, GCC does have 18-odd years development inside it, and god-knows how
many man-years that equates to!!  But, on the downside is that by being so
generic then some target-specific optimizations become a right PITA to
implement, so they suffer at the expense of generality.  A small price to
pay though for such a widely available compiler.

> I guess you *can* have your cake and eat it for free... as long as you
> program in "small" model, which is what GCC does.

Indeed---as you apply restrictions you can turn the gain up on
model-specific optimizations.

> Still, I agree the switch statement could be cleaned up.

LCC has a better switch handling algorithm.  I've even heard of switch
statements that LCC handles, but that GCC crashes trying to parse (I'm
talking over a megabyte of machine-generated C code in one switch
statement!).

Cheers,
Neil

PS: I'm trying AvrX out in my first AVR project.  So far, so good... :-)
--
Neil Johnson :: Computer Laboratory :: University of Cambridge ::
http://www.njohnson.co.uk          http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~nej22
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