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D.gnu - Struct member functions emit unnecessary call to _d_assert_msg

reply "Mike" <none none.com> writes:
I'm beginning to implement structs in my ARM Cortex-M runtime, 
and I ran across something interesting today.

Consider this struct:
struct TestStruct
{
     uint TestVar;

     void Print()
     {
	trace.WriteLine("TestStruct.Print");
     }
}

And a function that uses that struct:
void MyFunction()
{
     TestStruct test;
     test.Print()
}

Adding this function call created a unresolved reference to 
_d_assert_msg. When I look at the code generations I see this:
  start.TestStruct.Print (struct start.TestStruct & this)
{
   struct  D.3650;
   const struct  t;
   struct  D.3627;
   struct  D.3626;

   <bb 2>:
   if (this_1(D) != 0)
     goto <bb 4>;
   else
     goto <bb 3>;

   <bb 3>:
   D.3626.length = 9;
   D.3626.ptr = "null this";
   D.3627.length = 14;
   D.3627.ptr = "source/start.d";
   _d_assert_msg (D.3626, D.3627, 26);

   <bb 4>:
   MEM[(struct  *)&t] = 16;
   MEM[(struct  *)&t + 4B] = "TestStruct.Print";
   Write (t);
   t ={v} {CLOBBER};
   D.3650.length = 2;
   D.3650.ptr = "\r\n";
   Write (D.3650);
   return;

}

What bothers me is the branch at <bb 2>. It looks like it's 
checking the struct instance to see if it is null. Is it even 
possible for it to be null?  Can this be improved?

I imagine in a tight loop (for example, an alpha blend function 
on an array of pixels), this can be a significant performance 
hindrance if every call has to make this check.

I'd be happy to submit a bug report if you think this has merit.

Mike
Jan 24 2014
parent "Daniel Murphy" <yebbliesnospam gmail.com> writes:
"Mike"  wrote in message news:lxusmgyievzioacmgwmc forum.dlang.org...
 What bothers me is the branch at <bb 2>. It looks like it's checking the 
 struct instance to see if it is null. Is it even possible for it to be 
 null?  Can this be improved?
It's checking if the 'this' pointer is null. Syntactically it's a 'this' _reference_, but it can still be null. void MyFunction() { TestStruct *test; test.Print() }
 I imagine in a tight loop (for example, an alpha blend function on an 
 array of pixels), this can be a significant performance hindrance if every 
 call has to make this check.
It should disappear when compiled with '-frelease'.
Jan 24 2014