SIMD support...

[Andrei Alexandrescu]

On 1/6/12 1:11 PM, Walter Bright wrote:
> On 1/6/2012 10:25 AM, Brad Roberts wrote:
>> How is making __v128 a builtin type better than defining it as:
>>
>> align(16) struct __v128
>> {
>> ubyte[16] data;
>> }
>
> Then the back end knows it should be mapped onto the XMM registers
> rather than the usual arithmetic set.

If it's possible, then it would be great to express the new constructs 
within the existing language (optionally by leaving it to the 
implementation to strengthen guarantees of certain constructs).

I very warmly recommend avoiding defining things in the language and 
compiler wherever the same is possible within a library (however 
non-portable). Confining features to the language/compiler drastically 
reduces the number of people that can work on them.


Andrei