System programming in D (Was: The God Language)

[Trass3r]

> I completely agree that DMD's inliner is underpowered and needs  
> improvement. I am less sure that this demonstrates that the language  
> needs changes.
>
> Functions below a certain size should be inlined if possible. Those  
> above that size do not benefit perceptibly from inlining. Where that  
> certain size exactly is, who knows, but I doubt that functions near that  
> size will benefit much from user intervention.

More specifically a distinction would be nice like gcc does:

"-finline-small-functions
Integrate functions into their callers when their body is smaller than  
expected function call code (so overall size of program gets smaller). The  
compiler heuristically decides which functions are simple enough to be  
worth integrating in this way.

Enabled at level -O2.

-finline-functions
Integrate all simple functions into their callers. The compiler  
heuristically decides which functions are simple enough to be worth  
integrating in this way.

Enabled at level -O3."