C vs. FORTRAN

[Eugene N. Miya]

In article <3136 at phoenix.Princeton.EDU> mjschmel at phoenix.Princeton.EDU (Michael J. Schmelzer) writes:
>Given that C produces assembly code very similar to the source
>code it came from, why should it be any slower than the object
>code generated by a FORTRAN compiler?
>
>Furthermore, wouldn't optimizers eliminate any difference between
>their final products?

My two yen:

Your fallacy is sort of based on the separation of parts in compilation
and an assumption from everything is performed properly: a common
misconception.  For instance, compilers appear as very monolith things
to most people (like me), only recently have companies started writing
compilers in high-level languages, started thinking about common code
generators for different languages, etc.  Sure, the binary machine
instructions all have to work in the machine instruction environment,
but many machines had different optimizers for their different language
compilers.  This is changing as common intermediate codes are
developing.  The point is things are changing for the better.  Consider
that supercomputer sometimes make terrible byte pushers [over
generalized].

In another case, we also tend to take a lot of features like
optimization for granted.  Most of these systems are poorly tested.
This is not completely the fault of manufacturers.  We ran un-vectorized
libraries month before we found the mistake, this was not a production
machine, a site configuration error.  In another case, I reserved
a big machine for stand alone use on micro-tasking research.  I was
expecting to see 4 CPU crunching a problem.  Only 1 was working.
The tasking package was distributed set up to only run on 1 CPU.
Only a stand alone test would have detected this problem.  TIme to
recompile.

Another gross generalization from

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