Re: build optimizations

[Alexander Gladysh <agladysh@...>]

On Tue, Mar 22, 2011 at 15:24, Luiz Henrique de Figueiredo
<lhf@tecgraf.puc-rio.br> wrote:
> Here are two points on the build process that we'd like your input on:

> 1. The Makefile assumes gcc. So we might as well use all gcc-specific flags
>   to get a better Lua core and interpreter, for some definition of "better".
>   For instance, -fomit-frame-pointer seems to generate smaller and faster
>   binaries, but a Lua library compiled with -fomit-frame-pointer might not
>   be debuggable. Is this really a bad thing? Or will anyone needing to debug
>   the Lua library add the source code to the project and thus not rely on
>   whatever pre-built Lua exists in their system? What gcc-specific flags
>   should we use if we go that way?

Lua is built on a very wide range of installations. Its Makefile ought
to be conservative. If Lua Team feels some less conservative
optimizations are in order, it is better to create a separate platform
target for them. (Like linux-optimized, maybe? Or linux-gcc?)

> 2. The file all.c (aka one.c) allows Lua to be built as a single object file,
>   and allows the compiler to generate better code and with just the Lua API
>   as public symbols. We are considering building Lua in this way, so that
>   liblua.a will consist of a single object file. Does anyone see a drawback
>   to this?

Sounds as a viable idea.

My 2c,
Alexander.