Re: Suggested method for returning a string from a C program?

On 24/03/2025 16:17, Muttley@DastardlyHQ.org wrote:

On Mon, 24 Mar 2025 16:02:57 +0000
bart <bc@freeuk.com> wibbled:

On 24/03/2025 15:00, Muttley@DastardlyHQ.org wrote:

real 0m0.815s
user 0m0.516s
sys 0m0.252s

>
>
So, your throughput is a whopping 9.5K lines/second?

 On a tired laptop with multiple files it seems pretty good to me.
 

Build time is 1/15th of a second, for about 30K lines (so 450Klps). But
I also want to compile this via C, to take advantage of gcc's superior
optimiser. So first I transpile to C (that's also under 70ms):

 I'll paraphrase someone elses point - who fucking cares? If you need lightning
fast compilation because you're constantly rebuilding your shit code to see if
it'll even compile never mind work then that says a lot about you as a dev.

The thinking/writing to compilation time ratio I imagine with most devs would
probably be a minimum of 100 - 1, possibly much larger

The generated C file is 38Kloc, and takes 12 seconds. It takes nearly
TWO HUNDRED TIMES longer to build.

 *GASP*! 12 whole seconds! How can you cope with your day being interrupted
like that for so long!

So applying your 100:1 ratio, you'd spend 20 whole minutes pondering your next move before compiling again?
When you have near-instant build times then it's completely different way of working.
Do you think people who work with scripting languages (or even writing HTML) would tolerate an exasperating 12-second day between hitting Run, and their test-run starting?
In the case of this project, development is incremental: run a test, there's an opcode not yet done, add the lines for it, test it again.
Or do a timing test, measure, tweak a line to two, time it again to see if it's any better.
Or there might be bunch of configuration and debug settings, that don't warrant dedicated CLI options, so to change a setting means changing one line and rebuilding. Why not? It only takes an instant!
If I had to wait 10+ seconds each time then it would both take all fucking day AND drive me around the bend.
You really haven't got a clue.