[M3devel] a trouble with passing records by value..

[hendrik at topoi.pooq.com]

On Tue, Aug 31, 2010 at 08:59:09PM -0400, Tony Hosking wrote:
> On 31 Aug 2010, at 19:13, Jay K wrote:
> 
> > Another change we need is to check that the backend and frontend agree on the sizes and alignments of types.
> > gcc does have a "packed" notion. It might be useful, like if it lets us set size/alignment and impedes repeat computation.
> 
> Why would it not?  We specify alignment...
> 
> > It might also be good to have the backend feed its computed sizes/alignments back to the front end.
> > It'd be via more files.
> 
> YUCK!!!!!!!!!  Not a good plan...

I've always thought back ends and front ends should communicate more, 
but not if they are separatee processes run at separate times; 
especially if the feedback would involve some kind of surrogate time 
travel.

But failing that, it might be good to have a suite of sizes/alignment 
tests, where the front end explicitly reports sizes and aligmment and 
the back end does the same.  It that's done by generating all these 
numbers into the executable and writing them out at run-time, that would 
be OK.

-- hendrik