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431 lines
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<META NAME="GENERATOR" CONTENT="LinuxDoc-Tools 0.9.20">
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<TITLE>cc65 coding hints</TITLE>
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</HEAD>
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<BODY>
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<H1>cc65 coding hints</H1>
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<H2>Ullrich von Bassewitz,
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<A HREF="mailto:uz@cc65.org">uz@cc65.org</A></H2>03.12.2000
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<HR>
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<EM>How to generate the most effective code with cc65.</EM>
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<HR>
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<H2><A NAME="s1">1. Use prototypes</A></H2>
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<P>This will not only help to find errors between separate modules, it will also
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generate better code, since the compiler must not assume that a variable sized
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parameter list is in place and must not pass the argument count to the called
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function. This will lead to shorter and faster code.</P>
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<H2><A NAME="s2">2. Don't declare auto variables in nested function blocks</A></H2>
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<P>Variable declarations in nested blocks are usually a good thing. But with
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cc65, there is a drawback: Since the compiler generates code in one pass, it
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must create the variables on the stack each time the block is entered and
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destroy them when the block is left. This causes a speed penalty and larger
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code.</P>
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<H2><A NAME="s3">3. Remember that the compiler does not optimize</A></H2>
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<P>The compiler needs hints from you about the code to generate. When accessing
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indexed data structures, get a pointer to the element and use this pointer
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instead of calculating the index again and again. If you want to have your
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loops unrolled, or loop invariant code moved outside the loop, you have to do
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that yourself.</P>
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<H2><A NAME="s4">4. Longs are slow!</A></H2>
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<P>While long support is necessary for some things, it's really, really slow on
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the 6502. Remember that any long variable will use 4 bytes of memory, and any
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operation works on double the data compared to an int.</P>
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<H2><A NAME="s5">5. Use unsigned types wherever possible</A></H2>
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<P>The CPU has no opcodes to handle signed values greater than 8 bit. So sign
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extension, test of signedness etc. has to be done by hand. The code to handle
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signed operations is usually a bit slower than the same code for unsigned
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types.</P>
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<H2><A NAME="s6">6. Use chars instead of ints if possible</A></H2>
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<P>While in arithmetic operations, chars are immidiately promoted to ints, they
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are passed as chars in parameter lists and are accessed as chars in variables.
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The code generated is usually not much smaller, but it is faster, since
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accessing chars is faster. For several operations, the generated code may be
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better if intermediate results that are known not to be larger than 8 bit are
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casted to chars.</P>
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<P>When doing</P>
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<P>
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<BLOCKQUOTE><CODE>
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<PRE>
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unsigned char a;
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...
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if ((a & 0x0F) == 0)
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</PRE>
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</CODE></BLOCKQUOTE>
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</P>
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<P>the result of the & operator is an int because of the int promotion rules of
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the language. So the compare is also done with 16 bits. When using</P>
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<P>
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<BLOCKQUOTE><CODE>
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<PRE>
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unsigned char a;
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...
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if ((unsigned char)(a & 0x0F) == 0)
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</PRE>
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</CODE></BLOCKQUOTE>
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</P>
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<P>the generated code is much shorter, since the operation is done with 8 bits
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instead of 16.</P>
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<H2><A NAME="s7">7. Make the size of your array elements one of 1, 2, 4, 8</A></H2>
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<P>When indexing into an array, the compiler has to calculate the byte offset
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into the array, which is the index multiplied by the size of one element. When
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doing the multiplication, the compiler will do a strength reduction, that is,
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replace the multiplication by a shift if possible. For the values 2, 4 and 8,
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there are even more specialized subroutines available. So, array access is
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fastest when using one of these sizes.</P>
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<H2><A NAME="s8">8. Expressions are evaluated from left to right</A></H2>
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<P>Since cc65 is not building an explicit expression tree when parsing an
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expression, constant subexpressions may not be detected and optimized properly
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if you don't help. Look at this example:</P>
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<P>
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<BLOCKQUOTE><CODE>
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<PRE>
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#define OFFS 4
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int i;
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i = i + OFFS + 3;
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</PRE>
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</CODE></BLOCKQUOTE>
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</P>
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<P>The expression is parsed from left to right, that means, the compiler sees 'i',
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and puts it contents into the secondary register. Next is OFFS, which is
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constant. The compiler emits code to add a constant to the secondary register.
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Same thing again for the constant 3. So the code produced contains a fetch
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of 'i', two additions of constants, and a store (into 'i'). Unfortunately, the
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compiler does not see, that "OFFS + 3" is a constant for itself, since it does
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it's evaluation from left to right. There are some ways to help the compiler
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to recognize expression like this:</P>
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<P>
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<OL>
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<LI>Write "i = OFFS + 3 + i;". Since the first and second operand are
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constant, the compiler will evaluate them at compile time reducing the code to
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a fetch, one addition (secondary + constant) and one store.
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</LI>
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<LI>Write "i = i + (OFFS + 3)". When seeing the opening parenthesis, the
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compiler will start a new expression evaluation for the stuff in the braces,
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and since all operands in the subexpression are constant, it will detect this
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and reduce the code to one fetch, one addition and one store.
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</LI>
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</OL>
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</P>
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<H2><A NAME="s9">9. Use the preincrement and predecrement operators</A></H2>
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<P>The compiler is not always smart enough to figure out, if the rvalue of an
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increment is used or not. So it has to save and restore that value when
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producing code for the postincrement and postdecrement operators, even if this
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value is never used. To avoid the additional overhead, use the preincrement
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and predecrement operators if you don't need the resulting value. That means,
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use</P>
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<P>
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<BLOCKQUOTE><CODE>
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<PRE>
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...
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++i;
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...
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</PRE>
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</CODE></BLOCKQUOTE>
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</P>
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<P>instead of</P>
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<P>
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<BLOCKQUOTE><CODE>
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<PRE>
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...
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i++;
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...
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</PRE>
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</CODE></BLOCKQUOTE>
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</P>
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<H2><A NAME="s10">10. Use constants to access absolute memory locations</A></H2>
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<P>The compiler produces optimized code, if the value of a pointer is a constant.
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So, to access direct memory locations, use</P>
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<P>
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<BLOCKQUOTE><CODE>
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<PRE>
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#define VDC_DATA 0xD601
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*(char*)VDC_STATUS = 0x01;
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</PRE>
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</CODE></BLOCKQUOTE>
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</P>
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<P>That will be translated to</P>
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<P>
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<BLOCKQUOTE><CODE>
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<PRE>
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lda #$01
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sta $D600
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</PRE>
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</CODE></BLOCKQUOTE>
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</P>
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<P>The constant value detection works also for struct pointers and arrays, if the
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subscript is a constant. So</P>
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<P>
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<BLOCKQUOTE><CODE>
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<PRE>
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#define VDC ((unsigned char*)0xD600)
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#define STATUS 0x01
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VDC [STATUS] = 0x01;
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</PRE>
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</CODE></BLOCKQUOTE>
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</P>
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<P>will also work.</P>
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<P>If you first load the constant into a variable and use that variable to access
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an absolute memory location, the generated code will be much slower, since the
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compiler does not know anything about the contents of the variable.</P>
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<H2><A NAME="s11">11. Use initialized local variables - but use it with care</A></H2>
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<P>Initialization of local variables when declaring them gives shorter and faster
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code. So, use</P>
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<P>
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<BLOCKQUOTE><CODE>
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<PRE>
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int i = 1;
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</PRE>
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</CODE></BLOCKQUOTE>
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</P>
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<P>instead of</P>
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<P>
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<BLOCKQUOTE><CODE>
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<PRE>
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int i;
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i = 1;
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</PRE>
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</CODE></BLOCKQUOTE>
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</P>
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<P>But beware: To maximize your savings, don't mix uninitialized and initialized
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variables. Create one block of initialized variables and one of uniniitalized
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ones. The reason for this is, that the compiler will sum up the space needed
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for uninitialized variables as long as possible, and then allocate the space
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once for all these variables. If you mix uninitialized and initialized
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variables, you force the compiler to allocate space for the uninitialized
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variables each time, it parses an initialized one. So do this:</P>
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<P>
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<BLOCKQUOTE><CODE>
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<PRE>
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int i, j;
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int a = 3;
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int b = 0;
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</PRE>
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</CODE></BLOCKQUOTE>
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</P>
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<P>instead of</P>
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<P>
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<BLOCKQUOTE><CODE>
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<PRE>
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int i;
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int a = 3;
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int j;
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int b = 0;
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</PRE>
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</CODE></BLOCKQUOTE>
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</P>
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<P>The latter will work, but will create larger and slower code.</P>
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<H2><A NAME="s12">12. When using the ternary operator, cast values that are not ints</A></H2>
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<P>The result type of the <CODE>?:</CODE> operator is a long, if one of the second or
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third operands is a long. If the second operand has been evaluated and it was
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of type int, and the compiler detects that the third operand is a long, it has
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to add an additional <CODE>int</CODE> -> <CODE>long</CODE> conversion for the second
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operand. However, since the code for the second operand has already been
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emitted, this gives much worse code.</P>
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<P>Look at this:</P>
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<P>
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<BLOCKQUOTE><CODE>
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<PRE>
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long f (long a)
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{
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return (a != 0)? 1 : a;
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}
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</PRE>
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</CODE></BLOCKQUOTE>
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</P>
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<P>When the compiler sees the literal "1", it does not know, that the result type
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of the <CODE>?:</CODE> operator is a long, so it will emit code to load a integer
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constant 1. After parsing "a", which is a long, a <CODE>int</CODE> -> <CODE>long</CODE>
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conversion has to be applied to the second operand. This creates one
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additional jump, and an additional code for the conversion.</P>
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<P>A better way would have been to write:</P>
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<P>
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<BLOCKQUOTE><CODE>
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<PRE>
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long f (long a)
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{
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return (a != 0)? 1L : a;
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}
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</PRE>
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</CODE></BLOCKQUOTE>
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</P>
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<P>By forcing the literal "1" to be of type long, the correct code is created in
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the first place, and no additional conversion code is needed.</P>
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<H2><A NAME="s13">13. Use the array operator [] even for pointers</A></H2>
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<P>When addressing an array via a pointer, don't use the plus and dereference
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operators, but the array operator. This will generate better code in some
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common cases.</P>
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<P>Don't use</P>
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<P>
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<BLOCKQUOTE><CODE>
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<PRE>
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char* a;
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char b, c;
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char b = *(a + c);
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</PRE>
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</CODE></BLOCKQUOTE>
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</P>
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<P>Use</P>
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<P>
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<BLOCKQUOTE><CODE>
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<PRE>
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char* a;
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char b, c;
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char b = a[c];
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</PRE>
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</CODE></BLOCKQUOTE>
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</P>
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<P>instead.</P>
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<H2><A NAME="s14">14. Use register variables with care</A></H2>
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<P>Register variables may give faster and shorter code, but they do also have an
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overhead. Register variables are actually zero page locations, so using them
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saves roughly one cycle per access. Since the old values have to be saved and
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restored, there is an overhead of about 70 cycles per 2 byte variable. It is
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easy to see, that - apart from the additional code that is needed to save and
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restore the values - you need to make heavy use of a variable to justify the
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overhead.</P>
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<P>As a general rule: Use register variables only for pointers that are
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dereferenced several times in your function, or for heavily used induction
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variables in a loop (with several 100 accesses).</P>
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<P>When declaring register variables, try to keep them together, because this
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will allow the compiler to save and restore the old values in one chunk, and
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not in several.</P>
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<P>And remember: Register variables must be enabled with <CODE>-r</CODE> or <CODE>-Or</CODE>.</P>
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<H2><A NAME="s15">15. Decimal constants greater than 0x7FFF are actually long ints</A></H2>
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<P>The language rules for constant numeric values specify that decimal constants
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without a type suffix that are not in integer range must be of type long int
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or unsigned long int. This means that a simple constant like 40000 is of type
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long int, and may cause an expression to be evaluated with 32 bits.</P>
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<P>An example is:</P>
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<P>
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<BLOCKQUOTE><CODE>
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<PRE>
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unsigned val;
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...
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if (val < 65535) {
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...
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}
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</PRE>
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</CODE></BLOCKQUOTE>
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</P>
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<P>Here, the compare is evaluated using 32 bit precision. This makes the code
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larger and a lot slower.</P>
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<P>Using</P>
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<P>
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<BLOCKQUOTE><CODE>
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<PRE>
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unsigned val;
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...
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if (val < 0xFFFF) {
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...
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}
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</PRE>
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</CODE></BLOCKQUOTE>
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</P>
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<P>or</P>
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<P>
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<BLOCKQUOTE><CODE>
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<PRE>
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unsigned val;
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...
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if (val < 65535U) {
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...
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}
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</PRE>
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</CODE></BLOCKQUOTE>
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</P>
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<P>instead will give shorter and faster code.</P>
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<H2><A NAME="s16">16. Access to parameters in variadic functions is expensive</A></H2>
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<P>Since cc65 has the "wrong" calling order, the location of the fixed parameters
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in a variadic function (a function with a variable parameter list) depends on
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the number and size of variable arguments passed. Since this number and size
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is unknown at compile time, the compiler will generate code to calculate the
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location on the stack when needed.</P>
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<P>Because of this additional code, accessing the fixed parameters in a variadic
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function is much more expensive than access to parameters in a "normal"
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function. Unfortunately, this additional code is also invisible to the
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programmer, so it is easy to forget.</P>
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<P>As a rule of thumb, if you access such a parameter more than once, you should
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think about copying it into a normal variable and using this variable instead.</P>
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