TITLE: Optimizing const declarations

PROBLEM: pcs$1304@altair.selu.edu (Todd Bowers)

Just to add a little more info:

   - true const declarations are permanently stored in the data
     segment.

   - true const declarations are also require memory references when
     used, again, not so bad unless you've got a lot of 'em. #define
     constants are actually text that the compiler inserts into the
     code as its compiling, just as if you had typed the literal value
     there yourself.


RESPONSE: steve@taumet.com (Steve Clamage), 14 May 93

Not necessarily so.  Most compilers will optimize away the storage.

Most compilers will use const items in exactly the same way as literals.

The language explicitly allows these optimizations.  When used in the
same way as simple macros, you will normally get identical code for
const variables.  I don't know of any advantage in using a simple macro
for a literal over using a const variable.