Does the ZScript compiler do any optimizing?

[argv]

Does the ZScript compiler do any optimizing? Is there a run-down somewhere of what optimizations it does?

In particular, does it optimize arithmetic at all? Should I change “x / 2” to “x >> 1” or “x * .5” everywhere, or is the compiler doing that behind the scenes already?

[Graf Zahl]

It generally does not optimize anything, except in a few trivial cases. It can fold constant expressions but it does not alter any math operations. In your example case it won't change the operation but don't forget that optimizing such things make little sense because the VM code is already an entire magnitude slower than what you could gain.

[argv]

Does it fold constant subexpressions that are part of a non-constant expression, such as “x = y * (3. / 4.);” → “x = y * .75;”?

[Graf Zahl]

Yes.

[argv]

Nice! That'll help with readability.

Is there any way to see a disassembly of the VM bytecode?

[Graf Zahl]

Yes, add "-dumpdisasm" to the command line and it writes out a disassembly of the entire compiled code.