0000446: smarter comparisons of structures

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0000446

mercury

Feature Request

public

2018-01-30 02:32

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Assigned To

Priority

low

Severity

feature

Reproducibility

N/A

Status

assigned

Resolution

open

Product Version

Target Version

Fixed in Version

Summary

0000446: smarter comparisons of structures

Description

The code we automatically generate two compare structures such as f(int, int, ..., int)
looks like this:

   X = f(X1, X2, ..., Xn),
   Y = f(Y1, Y2, ..., Yn),
   ( if
      compare(R1, X1, Y),
      R1 != "="
   then
     R = R1
   else if
      compare(R2, X2, Y2),
      R2 != "="
   then
      R = R2
   ...
  )

The problem with this is that we execute the code to retrieve X2 ... Xn and Y2 ... Yn
even if X1 != X2.

We should instead generate code that picks up the value of Xi and Yi just before
we call compare on them, in the condition of the relevant if-then-else.

If the comparison of Xi and Yi is quick (such as when they are integers),
then the heap cells of X and Y should still be in the cache.

If the comparison is NOT quick, such as when Xi and Yi are complex data structures,
having to pick up Xi+1 and Yi+1 from the heap may add an extra cache miss.
We should experiment with storing Xi+1 and Yi+1 in the stack frame in such cases
(and in such cases *only*). That may pay back if Xi = Yi, but would be a cost if
Xi != Yi (since in that case we won't need to compare Xi+1 and Yi+1).

The same considerations apply to unify predicates.

Additional Information

We should test whether, and if so how well, the stack_opt optimization can do this task already.

Date Modified	Username	Field	Change
Issue History
2018-01-30 02:32	zs	New Issue
2018-01-30 02:32	zs	Status	new => assigned
2018-01-30 02:32	zs	Assigned To	=> zs

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