dmd codegen improvements

[Laeeth Isharc via Digitalmars-d]

On Thursday, 17 September 2015 at 11:47:36 UTC, Bruno Medeiros 
wrote:
> On 17/09/2015 08:10, Joakim wrote:
>> Yeah, I was a bit stunned that that is what Bruno took from 
>> your post.
>> I don't think anybody would question that writing a C or C++ 
>> compiler in
>> the '80s and '90s had value, and I'm sure you did pretty well 
>> off them,
>> considering you retired at 42
>> (http://www.drdobbs.com/architecture-and-design/how-i-came-to-write-d/240165322).
>>
>
> I didn't say that Walter's previous work didn't bring *any* 
> value to the software world. It's not like people challenged 
> him to write efficient lolcode or brainfuck(*) compilers, or 
> some other silly challenge, which if he did would have a been a 
> massive waste of time - even if it was technically a very 
> admirable feat.
>
> (*) - Yeah those languages weren't around at the time, but 
> that's just an example.
>
> My point was that one would certainly bring *more* value to the 
> software world, if that is the primary focus of one's career, 
> instead of merely proving people wrong.
>
> That doesn't mean either one has to be an emotionless robot 
> that never does something just for the sake of ego-boosting 
> (which is really the only reward of proving people wrong - 
> unless there are some monetary or other resources at stake). 
> But Walter has so many stories of "I did this [massive project] 
> to prove people wrong." which is what makes me wonder if there 
> isn't too much focus on ego validation.

Human beings are funny creatures, and able people like to be 
stretched to the limit of what's possible.  Having someone tell 
you there is no way you can do that is a hint that it's quite a 
difficult problem, and yet you may correctly perceive how it may 
be done.  A highly talented person of this sort has many ways in 
which in theory they might add most value, but many fewer viable 
ways, because they find it harder than most to do what they don't 
want to do.  (And creativity comes when you are following a path 
that is within you).  Cattell and Eysenck wrote about this, and 
lately Professor Bruce Charlton at Iqpersonalitygenius blog.

Plus, following what moves you may be a better guide than 
rational optimisation given that with the latter one is often 
fooling oneself since one doesn't even understand the structure 
of social calculus.

I personally find Walter's attitude quite inspiring, although I 
am not familiar with the pre TDPL days and not so interested at 
this moment.  At least you can say that he recognizes that 
management is difficult for him and did bring Andrei alongside, 
not something easy to do to yield total control.