Library-vs-local performance

[Don Stewart]

sedillard:
>    I can't reproduce the behavior on any of the less egregiously inlined
>    functions. For everything else the running times are the same using either
>    local packages or installed libraries.
> 
>    On Tue, Jun 24, 2008 at 3:16 PM, Ian Lynagh <[1]igloo at earth.li> wrote:
> 
>      On Tue, Jun 24, 2008 at 02:01:58PM -0700, Donald Bruce Stewart wrote:
>      > >
>      > >    1) Library is installed via cabal.
>      > >    2) Library source lives in the same directory as the application,
>      so that
>      > >    ghc --make Examples.hs also builds the library.
>      >
>      > That's compiling Examples with full access to the source though!
>      > So ghc has the entire source available.
> 
>      That shouldn't make any difference. I suspect a flag difference is to
>      blame - giving cabal build the -v flag will show which flags it is
>      using.
> 
>    I've taken all optimization flags out of the .cabal file. They don't have
>    any effect. My understanding of things is this: (please correct if wrong)
>    All functions have inline pragmas, and all are small (1 or 2 lines) so
>    their definitions are all spewed into the .hi files. So in both scenarios
>    (library vs local) GHC can "see" the whole library. Since every function
>    is inlined, it doesn't matter what flags the library is compiled with.
>    That compiled code will never be used so long as the application is
>    compiled with optimization on. 
> 
>    Now the particulars of the situation are this: the function in question is
>    inlined very deeply, it has many instance constraints, and during
>    simplification the core blows up to _ridiculous_ sizes. (Compilation with
>    -ddump-simpl is taking about 5-10 min.) I think I'm pushing the compiler
>    to unreasonable limits, and I think maybe something non-obvious is going
>    on inside.
> 
>    On the otherhand, pushing the compiler in this way gets me a 3x speedup,
>    which is nothing to sneeze at. In the meantime I'll see what I can do to
>    make this function (gaussian elimination) more amenable to simplification.
>    The rest of the library works great.

You might want to give the simplifier enough time to unwind things.
I use, e.g.

            -O2
            -fvia-C -optc-O2
            -fdicts-cheap
            -fno-method-sharing
            -fmax-simplifier-iterations10
            -fliberate-case-threshold100

in my ghc-options for 'whole program' libraries.

Raise these limits if you find they're having an effect

-- Don