Path: ...!news.mixmin.net!eternal-september.org!feeder3.eternal-september.org!news.eternal-september.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail
From: Terje Mathisen <terje.mathisen@tmsw.no>
Newsgroups: comp.arch
Subject: Re: Computer architects leaving Intel...
Date: Tue, 3 Sep 2024 17:46:38 +0200
Organization: A noiseless patient Spider
Lines: 72
Message-ID: <vb7b0v$3d1o7$1@dont-email.me>
References: <2024Aug30.161204@mips.complang.tuwien.ac.at>
 <memo.20240830164247.19028y@jgd.cix.co.uk> <vasruo$id3b$1@dont-email.me>
 <2024Aug30.195831@mips.complang.tuwien.ac.at> <vat5ap$jthk$2@dont-email.me>
 <vaunhb$vckc$1@dont-email.me> <vautmu$vr5r$1@dont-email.me>
 <2024Aug31.170347@mips.complang.tuwien.ac.at> <vavpnh$13tj0$2@dont-email.me>
 <vb00c2$150ia$1@dont-email.me>
 <505954890d8461c1f4082b1beecd453c@www.novabbs.org>
 <vb0kh2$12ukk$1@dont-email.me> <vb3smg$1ta6s$1@dont-email.me>
 <vb4q5o$12ukk$3@dont-email.me>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8; format=flowed
Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
Injection-Date: Tue, 03 Sep 2024 17:46:39 +0200 (CEST)
Injection-Info: dont-email.me; posting-host="f05a5d1bbdc6ef5b61535a1922778e45";
	logging-data="3573511"; mail-complaints-to="abuse@eternal-september.org";	posting-account="U2FsdGVkX18gZH9dj9s90Aky6psQS/4lp3cA/kg3LfTxi0Zm5uIRLg=="
User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64; rv:91.0) Gecko/20100101
 Firefox/91.0 SeaMonkey/2.53.18.2
Cancel-Lock: sha1:DwBVfjyfu3pk2mUFRVmwyTRyngo=
In-Reply-To: <vb4q5o$12ukk$3@dont-email.me>
Bytes: 4256

Stephen Fuld wrote:
> On 9/2/2024 1:23 AM, Terje Mathisen wrote:
>> Stephen Fuld wrote:
>>> On 8/31/2024 2:14 PM, MitchAlsup1 wrote:
>>>> On Sat, 31 Aug 2024 21:01:54 +0000, Bernd Linsel wrote:
>>>>> You compare apples and peaches. Technical specifications for your
>>>>> pressure vessel result from the physical abilities of the chosen
>>>>> material, by keeping requirements as vessel border width, geometry =

>>>>> etc.,
>>>>> while compiler writers are free in their search for optimization=20
>>>>> tricks
>>>>> that let them shine at SPEC benchmarks.
>>>>
>>>> A pressure vessel may actually be able to contain 2=C3=83=C6=92=C3=A2=
=E2=82=AC=E2=80=9D the=20
>>>> pressure it
>>>> will be able to contain 20 after 20 years of service due to stress
>>>> and strain acting on the base materials.
>>>>
>>>> Then there are 3 kinds of metals {grey, white, yellow} with differen=
t
>>>> responses to stress and induced strain. There is no analogy in code-=
-
>>>> If there were perhaps we would have better code today...
>>>
>>> Perhaps an analogy is code written in assembler, versus coed written =

>>> in C versus code written in something like Ada or Rust.=C3=82=C2=A0 B=
acking=20
>>> away now . . . :-)
>>
>> IMNSHO, code written in asm is generally more safe than code written=20
>> in C, because the author knows exactly what each line of code is going=
=20
>> to do.
>>
>> The problem is of course that it is harder to get 10x lines of correct=
=20
>> asm than to get 1x lines of correct C.
>>
>> BTW, I am also solidly in the grey hair group here, writing C code=20
>> that is very low-level, using explicit local variables for any loop=20
>> invariant, copying other stuff into temp vars in order to make it=20
>> really obvious that they cannot alias any globals or input/output=20
>> parameters.
>>
>> Anyway, that is all mostly moot since I'm using Rust for this kind of =

>> programming now. :-)
>=20
> Can you talk about the advantages and disadvantages of Rust versus C?

Q&D programming is still far faster for me in C, but using Rust I don't=20
have to worry about how well the compiler will be able to optimize my=20
code, it is pretty much always close to speed of light since the entire=20
aliasing issue goes away.

Rust also gets rid of the horrible external library/configure/cmake mess =

that kept me from successfully compiling the reference LAStools lidar=20
code for nearly 10 years.

Using the Rust port I just tell cargo to add it to my project and that's =
it.

Terje

--=20
- <Terje.Mathisen at tmsw.no>
"almost all programming can be viewed as an exercise in caching"