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2.4 Optimizer Options

There are various command line options that can be used to tell ick whether and in what ways to optimize code.

-f

This option requests the compiler to attempt to analyse the flow of the program and optimize accordingly; for instance, it will detect which commands can’t possibly be ABSTAINED from and refrain from generating code to check the abstention status of those commands.

-F

This option tells the compiler to optimize the output for speed. This is done to crazy extremes; the compiler may take several hours/days analysing the program in some cases and still not come up with an improvement. It turns on all the other optimizer options. Note that not all systems accept this option, because it sometimes outputs a shell script disguised as an executable rather than an actual executable.

-O

This option tells the compiler to apply optimizer idioms to the expressions in the code given, when appropriate. The list of idioms is stored in the file src/idiotism.oil; note that it is compiled into the compiler, though, so you will have to rebuild and reinstall the compiler if you change it. For more information about changing the list of idioms, see Optimizer Idiom Language.