Re: bug#36370: 27.0.50; XFIXNAT called on negative numbers

[Bruno Haible]

Pip Cet wrote:
> I would like to state that the current assume does
> behave very badly when combined with -fno-inline-small-functions
> -fno-inline.

Since we can't address this limitation through an acceptable change
to the 'assume' macro, we need to address it through documentation.

> marking it
> as __attribute__((always_inline)) is problematic because it might
> directly contradict what the programmer was trying to achieve by
> passing -fno-inline.

__attribute__((always_inline)) exists precisely to make a distinction
between functions where inlining is usually desirable vs. functions
where inlining is essential. We don't need to warn against the uses
of __attribute__((always_inline)) -- confusing behaviour in the debugger
etc. -- becauses these drawbacks are already well-known.

Paul Eggert wrote:
> I suggest something simpler and a little more general. The Emacs 
> documentation 
> for 'eassume' says this:
>
>     This can improve performance in some cases,
>     though it can degrade performance in others.  It's often suboptimal
>     for COND to call external functions or access volatile storage.
>
> and we could migrate that into the documentation for 'assume'.

As a user of the 'assume' macro, I want a definitive statement about what
I need to provide so that the macro works in the sense of improved performance.
A statement about "often" is too vague.

How about this proposed patch?

diff --git a/lib/verify.h b/lib/verify.h
index f8e4eff..ed1ba19 100644
--- a/lib/verify.h
+++ b/lib/verify.h
@@ -261,7 +261,10 @@ template <int w>
 
 /* Assume that R always holds.  This lets the compiler optimize
    accordingly.  R should not have side-effects; it may or may not be
-   evaluated.  Behavior is undefined if R is false.  */
+   evaluated.  The behavior is undefined if R is false.
+   If you want the use of this macro to improve, not deteriorate,
+   performance, R should not contain function calls except to functions
+   that are declared 'inline __attribute__((__always_inline__))'.  */
 
 #if (__has_builtin (__builtin_unreachable) \
      || 4 < __GNUC__ + (5 <= __GNUC_MINOR__))