I forgot one thing: This comment is only correct for 32 bit code. 64 bit
code has a uniform array layout for all element types.

Gerd

Gerd Stolpmann said:
>
> Andries Hekstra said:
>> Attached please find the first program I wrote. It has about the same
>> speed as its C++ counterpart (slightly faster). I welcome comments
>> w.r.t.
>> programming style, esp. when it affects the speed of the program.
>
> As you are doing a lot of array manipulation, this tip may increase
> performance significantly: because "float array" is stored with a
> different layout than all other arrays, the compiler generates a dynamic
> check for every access when the type of the array elements cannot be
> statically determined. For example, your function
>
> let swapElement i j a = let x = a.(i) in a.(i) <- a.(j); a.(j) <- x
>
> is polymorphic in the element type. If you define instead
>
> let swapFloatElement i j (a : float array)   let x = a.(i) in a.(i) <-
> a.(j); a.(j) <- x
>
> better code is generated because the mentioned check can be omitted by the
> compiler. This applies only if the function is not inlined; swapElement
> could be small enough (but qsort, for instance, is definitely not).
>
> Unfortunately, one cannot define swapNonFloatElement because there is no
> way to constrain a type that it is not float. So the type system cannot
> represent this duality float/non-float, and one must fall back to as many
> definitions as element types are actually used.
>
> Gerd
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> Gerd Stolpmann * Viktoriastr. 45 * 64293 Darmstadt * Germany
> gerd@gerd-stolpmann.de          http://www.gerd-stolpmann.de
> ------------------------------------------------------------
>
>
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------------------------------------------------------------
Gerd Stolpmann * Viktoriastr. 45 * 64293 Darmstadt * Germany
gerd@gerd-stolpmann.de          http://www.gerd-stolpmann.de
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