Jim Stapleton wrote:
> Thanks, I was more concerned with performance (an extra op or two each
> access), than with ease of use.
>
As the others pointed out &x references are actually implemented via
pointer deferences. C++ isn't some magical language, it's bound by the
same rules of the architecture as C. So to read/write that reference
you have to work through a pointer.
Note that GCC may alias *X to a register during it's computation. For
example,
int func(int *x, int *y)
{
*x = (*x * *y) + *y - (*y >> 2) + (*y << 4);
return *x;
}
produces this X86 code with GCC 4.1.2 (-O3 -fomit-frame-pointer)
func:
.LFB2:
movl (%rsi), %edx
movl %edx, %eax
movl %edx, %ecx
imull (%rdi), %eax
sarl $2, %ecx
leal (%rdx,%rax), %eax
sall $4, %edx
subl %ecx, %eax
addl %edx, %eax
movl %eax, (%rdi)
ret
As you can see x and y are pointed to by rsi and rdi. rsi get loaded
into edx, and reused. And now with using C++ ref's you get
_Z4funcRiS_:
.LFB2:
movl (%rsi), %edx
movl %edx, %eax
movl %edx, %ecx
imull (%rdi), %eax
sarl $2, %ecx
leal (%rdx,%rax), %eax
sall $4, %edx
subl %ecx, %eax
addl %edx, %eax
movl %eax, (%rdi)
ret
Notice some similarities?
Tom
