How do I find how C++ compiler implements something except inspecting emitted machine code?

Asked 2010-12-02T06:24:51.477

16

Suppose I crafted a set of classes to abstract something and now I worry whether my C++ compiler will be able to peel off those wrappings and emit really clean, concise and fast code. How do I find out what the compiler decided to do?

The only way I know is to inspect the disassembly. This works well for simple code, but there're two drawbacks - the compiler might do it different when it compiles the same code again and also machine code analysis is not trivial, so it takes effort.

How else can I find how the compiler decided to implement what I coded in C++?

c++ optimization compiler-construction assembly

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I'm afraid you're out of luck on this one. You're trying to find out "what the compiler did". What the compiler did is to produce machine code. The disassembly is simply a more readable form of the machine code, but it can't add information that isn't there. You can't figure out how a meat grinder works by looking at a hamburger.

answered 2010-12-02T06:28:54.643

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