[Ecls-list] Ecl crashes on binarytrees benchmark

[Marko Kocić]

> --enable-gengc might not work on all platforms. You just found out it
> is broken in Mingw32.
>
> --enable-smallcons seems pretty stable by now and does not add
> significant code overhead. It will become default in next release.
>
> --enable-longdouble does not seem very useful. I added because of
> somebody's request.
>
> --enable-threads slows down ECL signficantly. Not everybody needs
> threads. So no need to impose them on everybody.
>
> --enable-unicode does not make sense right now. Why do you need
> unicode strings if we do not have proper means to read utf-8 files
> yet?
>
> --with-cxx, building with a C++ compiler is an interesting option, but
> we do not want to force people to use a C++ compiler unless they want,
> do we ;-)
>
> --with-clx is by default off. I had no time to port portable-clx yet.
>
> --with-__thread is normally off. Not all compilers support it and even
> those that do sometimes produce wrong code.
>
> --enable-c99complex is not implemented. I do not remember who added
> it, but the person has definitely not finished that part.
>
> --enable-opcode8 is not active, but it may become so. The question is
> whether 8 bit opcodes do add something to the performance vs. 16 bit
> ones. Not yet clear. Needs further testing
>
> --enable-asmapply in  my experience only makes the core image smaller,
> but not faster. and currently only suports IA32
>
> All other options are on by default.

Thanks, that's exactly what I was asking. This explanation was clearly
missing from ./configure --help.

>> Shouldn't all those features (if considered stable) be enabled by
>> default on all platforms that support them?

> The rush to go for the latest. gc-7.0 was deemed unstable for quite a
> long time and it has only been marked stable recently. 7.1 is
> definitely _unstable_. The point is that if something works, there is
> no need to update yet.

I was asking because I hoped that --enable-gengc would somehow
magicaly become stable after gc upgrade, but seems I was wrong.

> gmp is a different beast. They tend to break
> things with new releases and in particular support for OS X has been
> in my experience a PITA. I do not want to look at it until I see some
> real benefit from upgrading. Unfortunately, I have to optimize every
> minute I devote to this project.

Thanks.
Btw, what is the link of portable-clx? Do you mean one referenced from
http://www.cliki.net/portable-clx?