Comment by circuit10
7 hours ago
What if the compiler is able to use that to determine that a whole code path is dead, and then significantly improve the surrounding function because of that?
Compilers optimise in multiple passes and removing things earlier can expose optimisation opportunities later that can affect other parts of the code too
> What if the compiler is able to use that to determine that a whole code path is dead,
Then it should warn "unreachable code".
> and then significantly improve the surrounding function because of that?
It's not simply the removal that is the problem, it's that the code is silently removed.