While trying to understand bug 0037121I noticed that the predominant search algorithm used for finding register names is a binary search without a match check. My understanding of this algorithm is that it will always run the maximum iterations for the search space before terminating. To understand how this is supposed to work I looked at other target implementations. I realized that this algorithm is used in all but 2 cases: x86 (in itx86int.pas) which uses (what I consider to be) a conventional binary search, and mips which uses a linear search.
I don't see a need to have different algorithms for performing what appears to be the same function (search for a string in a sorted list of strings), is this correct? Then, I don't understand why the general search algorithm isn't the one in itx86int.pas. Is there a compelling reason for preferring the 1st algorithm over the conventional binary search? Thirdly, each target has its own implementation of findreg_by_XXXname, is there a reason not to have a single search function shared by all targets? This may require some renaming of current variable lists such as gas_regname_index and int_regname_index etc. to a common convention. Your thoughts on these questions would be appreciated. Christo
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