Re:Microbenchmarks Are Experiments
by pizlonator on Friday November 29, 2024 @08:10AM
(#42273607)
> Which makes it a perfectly fine benchmark to measure whether a particular compiler implements these optimisations.
No, because whether the optimizations are “implemented” doesn’t matter.
What matters is whether the optimizations are robust enough to trigger for real code, not just bogus dead loops.
Which makes it a perfectly fine benchmark to measure whether a particular compiler implements these optimisations. The benchmark also highlights fine implementation details. I did not know about Dart's interrupt checks, for instance.
I see these microbenchmarks as genuinely useful, as I can analyse them, the logic behind them, and apply results in interpreter design. Consider [0] for example. Any sane compiler would do this kind of optimisation, but I've seen only one production interpreter (daScript) doing it.
[0] https://ergeysay.github.io/optimising-interpreters-fusion.ht...