Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!mcsun!cernvax!hjm From: hjm@cernvax.UUCP (Hubert Matthews) Newsgroups: comp.lang.c Subject: Re: Re^2: Oh noooooo!! Summary: FORTRAN isn't C (fortunately :->) Message-ID: <1100@cernvax.UUCP> Date: 27 Sep 89 14:39:24 GMT References: <1098@cernvax.UUCP> <14052@lanl.gov> Reply-To: hjm@cernvax.UUCP (Hubert Matthews) Organization: CERN European Laboratory for Particle Physics, CH-1211 Geneva, Switzerland Lines: 21 In article <14052@lanl.gov> Jim Giles writes: > >The problem here is that C allows GOTOs in all the same contexts >that Fortran does. More importantly, C allows GOTOs that even >Fortran doesn't. For example: >[... perfectly correct example of C v. FORTRAN GOTOs...] >So, the optimizer for C _cannot_ be any simpler than that for >Fortran. GOTOs are ubiquitous in FORTRAN and uncommon in C. A FORTRAN compiler needs to be able to optimise in the face of GOTOs, whereas a C compiler is rarely called upon so to do. Data-flow analysis is complex and the need for it is justified for FORTRAN compilers but not for C compilers owing to the relative frequencies of occurrence of GOTOs in the two languages. -- Hubert Matthews ...helping make the world a quote-free zone... hjm@cernvax.cern.ch hjm@vxomeg.decnet.cern.ch ...!mcvax!cernvax!hjm