This is because the machine code has to use a prefix operator that says "the following operation is on a 16-bit number, not a (native) 32-bit one". A simple 16-bit add is twice the instruction count of a 32-bit one.
This is false. The operand size prefix has very little overhead on modern processors. (You are talking about x86 right?) They only cause problems if they lead to false dependencies, which would be a compiler bug, not an inherent limitation with 16-bit operations. On Pentium 4, they can also cause decoding bottlenecks if they make the instruction more than 7 bytes long, but obviously this only affects instructions that would otherwise be exactly 7 bytes long. Opterons can eat operand size prefixes as though they weren't even there. Both processors will also suffer slightly worse i-cache performance because the code is a bit bigger, but I bet you'd have a pretty hard time noticing that in practice (and the Opetron has the exact same problem with 64-bit instructions, due to the Rex prefix).
The point is, I dislike X as much as the next guy, but the operand size prefix certainly doesn't count as a whole separate instruction. That's not the source of X's slowness.
Is it possible that your stance is beyond the point of diminishing returns in trading off your freedom as a vendor for the good of the child and the parent? With your attitude, either children don't learn to manage money until they become adults, which is a recipe for financial disaster; or else the parent must create a kind of police-state atmosphere for their children in order to protect them from material they believe unsuitable.
Children are society's greatest resource, and I think you just don't want to lift a finger to help parents to a good job of raising their own children.
No, I'm not asking you to help raise other people's children. I'm just asking you to make it possible for parents to choose what material is best for their children to have without going to absurd lengths like depriving the children of the opportunity to learn to manage money.
First, it's "peephole" optimizations, not "pinhole" optimizations. Second, gotos disrupt pipelines, and are usually expensive. You say it can "actually speed things up in many situations". Well, yes, that's true of almost any instruction, so it's an information-free phrase.
Active noise cancellation can work on any sound as long as you can put a microphone between the sound source and your ear. Electronics are much faster than sound waves, and they can compute the inverse signal by the time the sound reaches your ear.
Failing that, let us unify time across the whole world. UTC would be the time everywhere, anywhere, any time of the year. It would be hard when setting up appointments and such, but we are in a mess anyway.
I have to use a tool like Time And Date to know what time it is in a city I am calling.
You'd still need to do that. The only difference is, instead of saying "2pm in Toronto is 11am in Vancouver" it would say "the work day in Vancouver starts at 3pm and ends at 11pm".
I think it's less confusing right now. If I say "it's 11am in Vancouver" then you know the sun's up, and people are about an hour from lunchtime. How do you get the same information when everyone uses UTC?
Yep, visible light is different from radio. I'm just saying if one's whole argument is "bandwidth is finite, QED" then I don't find that very credible.
Slashdot Mirror
Rosa Parks?
The point is, I dislike X as much as the next guy, but the operand size prefix certainly doesn't count as a whole separate instruction. That's not the source of X's slowness.
Children are society's greatest resource, and I think you just don't want to lift a finger to help parents to a good job of raising their own children.
No, I'm not asking you to help raise other people's children. I'm just asking you to make it possible for parents to choose what material is best for their children to have without going to absurd lengths like depriving the children of the opportunity to learn to manage money.
First, it's "peephole" optimizations, not "pinhole" optimizations. Second, gotos disrupt pipelines, and are usually expensive. You say it can "actually speed things up in many situations". Well, yes, that's true of almost any instruction, so it's an information-free phrase.
...and mod me down if you must.
Nowadays a guy can go a whole day in Toronto without ever seeing a single igloo.
Active noise cancellation can work on any sound as long as you can put a microphone between the sound source and your ear. Electronics are much faster than sound waves, and they can compute the inverse signal by the time the sound reaches your ear.
Ok, I'll bite. What's the purpose of a contract (or any law) that's not government-enforced?
Blade Runner is conspicuously absent.
Saying PNG is better than JPEG is like saying MP3 is better than JPEG. They have totally different aims.
What problem would that solve exactly?
This book simply contains everything the author knows about writing portable code.
I cheated?
Gah... wrong button. Meant to hit "preview". The first one should of course be Integer.MIN_VALUE;
The second one I'm not so sure of: double i = Double.NaN;
Disclaimer: I work on a Java JIT compiler for a living.
This is not the place for the flame war you're trying to start.
Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and of course the Sun.
You got the joke.
It has already started.
I think it's less confusing right now. If I say "it's 11am in Vancouver" then you know the sun's up, and people are about an hour from lunchtime. How do you get the same information when everyone uses UTC?
Daylight saving time has no bearing on what time the sun rises or sets in the winter.
Uh, 3 weeks is 21 days. Personally I'd say that qualifies as "a matter of days", though I guess that's a matter of opinion.
Yep, visible light is different from radio. I'm just saying if one's whole argument is "bandwidth is finite, QED" then I don't find that very credible.
Upon being accused of ending his sentences with prepositions, he responded: "This is the sort of pedantry up with which I shall not put."