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From: DRIEHUIS%HLERUL5.BITNET@wiscvm.wisc.EDU
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: Re: Writing readable code [really opttimisation]
Message-ID: <8167@brl-adm.ARPA>
Date: Mon, 6-Jul-87 00:27:58 EDT
Article-I.D.: brl-adm.8167
Posted: Mon Jul  6 00:27:58 1987
Date-Received: Mon, 6-Jul-87 06:47:06 EDT
Sender: news@brl-adm.ARPA
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(Re: getting a new compiler if the one you use now doesn't
optimise 'fd==-1' into 'fd<0')
Look at the rephrased problem. How do you suppose the
compiler is to know that no negative value other than -1 is
ever to be returned from open() ? Of course, we know better,
we can make such inferences from manuals. It is a completely
different subject if a small optimisation on a (relatively
costly) operating system call is worth the price of
(alleged) lesser readability.
                                        - Bert
Bert Driehuis, LICOR Leiden, The Netherlands 
                        V.N.G. The Hague

Sorry, no funny quote of the day: I'm on VAX/VMS, remember,
with all the 'functionality' of several hundred different
file formats, even more permutations on the local
equivalent of a simple write(), but still *no* readnews, *no*
'.plan'-s, *no* 'who -hungry' and *no* '.signature'-s.