64 bit x86 processors got rid of INC/DEC in favor of efficiency of other instructions and in favor of adding the REX prefix... On 4/16/11 4:32 , Ted F.A. van Gaalen wrote:
Hi there.
I am probably not the first, and will not be the last person to come up with this suggestion, neverTheLess:
To increment a numeric value I would like to write:
aNum := 1. aNum ++. to increment it aNum --. to decrement it
instead of: aNum := aNum + 1.
For reasons of efficiency and readability.
Why? Most, if not all, of today's computer processors ( they used to be called microprocessors :o) have INCrement en DECrement instructions, which are much more efficient than addition and subtraction instructions. (less clock cycles, perhaps even just one)
Of course, the work should to be done by primitives, which directly utilizes the processor's INC, DEC instructions.
So, wouldn't it be convenient to implement these ++ and --- methods in Pharo? and VM. I am not sure, but I suspect also a number of system classes e.g. in do: [:i|...] would perform better, wenn this method/ instruction is supported?
?
Kind Regards Ted Currently making/learning Pharo/Seaside app.
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