🚀 go-pugleaf

Oooh, I'm annoyed.  For those of you that use Lattice 4.1 I have found
what I consider a big BUG.  Not the 'code doesn't work variety' but rather
the 'produces lousy code' type.  I have developed over the last year or
so the instincts of localizing register variables and auto variables with
their area of usage to give maximum efficiency in register allocation and
use of stack space.  Come to find out this can produce worse code than
not using register declarations at all.  Gack! Ack! Phooey!

Example:
    If I was to loop through an array assigning the elements to a
    value I might have:
 
    { register short i;
      for (i = 0; i < MAX_SIZE; i++)
        {
          some_array[i] = -1;
        }
    }

    One expects the register variable i to be dead after the last brace
    and thus available for re-use, right?  Wrongo!  Lattice doesn't
    think so.

Or how bout this:

     { short i[100];
       i[0] = 12;
     }

     You would expect the space for i on the stack to be freed after the last
     brace for re-use.  Nope.

Want proof?
Take a look at the following code section:

main(argc,argv)
int argc;
char **argv;
{
  { register long r1, r2, r3, r4, r5;
    long a[1];

    r1 = 0;
    a[r1] = 1;
    r2 = 2;
    r3 = 3;
    r4 = 4;
    r5 = r4 + r3;
    a[r1] = r1 + r2;
  }
  { register long r1, r2, r3, r4;
    long a[1];

    r1 = 0;
    a[r1] = r1 + r1;
    r2 = 2;
    r3 = 3;
    r4 = a[r1];
  }
    
}

Now lets look at the omd:
Some notes:  Lattice seems to reserve D0-D3 for its use and allocates
starting with D0.  It allocates D4-D7 to register variables and starts
with D7.

LATTICE OBJECT MODULE DISASSEMBLER V2.00

Amiga Object File Loader V1.00
68000 Instruction Set

EXTERNAL DEFINITIONS

_main 0000-00

SECTION 00 "testcase.o" 00000054 BYTES
main(argc,argv)
int argc;
char **argv;
{
0000 4E55FFE8                   LINK      A5,FFE8
0004 48E73F00                   MOVEM.L   D2-D7,-(A7)
  { register long r1, r2, r3, r4, r5;
    long a[1];

    r1 = 0;
0008 7E00                       MOVEQ     #00,D7      First register alloc
    a[r1] = 1;
000A 2007                       MOVE.L    D7,D0       First lattice reg
000C 2200                       MOVE.L    D0,D1       Second lattice reg
000E E541                       ASL.W     #2,D1
0010 7401                       MOVEQ     #01,D2      Third lattice reg
0012 2B8210E8                   MOVE.L    D2,E8(A5,D1.W)  Note a[] is at E8.
    r2 = 2;
0016 7C02                       MOVEQ     #02,D6      Second register alloc
    r3 = 3;
0018 7A03                       MOVEQ     #03,D5      Third register alloc
    r4 = 4;
001A 7804                       MOVEQ     #04,D4      Last register alloc
    r5 = r4 + r3;
001C 2404                       MOVE.L    D4,D2       Reuse lattice reg
001E 2404                       MOVE.L    D4,D2       ?
0020 D485                       ADD.L     D5,D2
    a[r1] = r1 + r2;
0022 2607                       MOVE.L    D7,D3       Last lattice reg
0024 2600                       MOVE.L    D0,D3
0026 D686                       ADD.L     D6,D3
0028 2B8310E8                   MOVE.L    D3,E8(A5,D1.W)
  }
  { register long r1, r2, r3, r4;
    long a[1];

    r1 = 0;                                           Note that it put r1 in
002C 7200                       MOVEQ     #00,D1      a lattice reg not a
   						      user reg.
    a[r1] = r1 + r1;
002E 2601                       MOVE.L    D1,D3
0030 E543                       ASL.W     #2,D3
0032 2001                       MOVE.L    D1,D0
0034 D081                       ADD.L     D1,D0
0036 2B8030EC                   MOVE.L    D0,EC(A5,D3.W)  Note a[] is at EC.

    r2 = 2;                                           Out of lattice regs
003A 7002                       MOVEQ     #02,D0      Saves r2 on the stack
003C 2B40FFF8                   MOVE.L    D0,FFF8(A5) gag!

    r3 = 3;                                           Ditto!
0040 7003                       MOVEQ     #03,D0
0042 2B40FFF4                   MOVE.L    D0,FFF4(A5)

    r4 = a[r1];                                       Ditto again.
0046 2B7530ECFFF0               MOVE.L    EC(A5,D3.W),FFF0(A5)
  }
    
}
004C 4CDF00FC                   MOVEM.L   (A7)+,D2-D7
0050 4E5D                       UNLK      A5
0052 4E75                       RTS

SECTION 01 "__MERGED" 00000000 BYTES

Moral of the story is check your register variables they may not be
producing the code you expect.

We are not amused.  Time to go find the LBBS number.  Growl, snarl, snap.

David Albrecht