Pigeon's Device: An Independent Loop Optimization Technique in C Programming
By
gaul
An everything bagel for the brain. Substantive, layered, well-seasoned.
Summary
The article introduces Pigeon's device, a loop optimization technique in C programming that was independently developed from Duff's device. The author explains that they created this technique for MS-DOS programming before learning about Duff's device, and describes how Pigeon's device was originally used in a function for comparing date/time records with different sort orders. The article compares the two techniques and discusses their similarities and differences in implementation.
Key quotes
· 5 pulledMany may have heard tell of Duff's device, a rather neat loop optimisation technique in C.
This page provides details of Pigeon's device - a related but independently-originated technique.
The original instantiation of Pigeon's device was in a piece of C code written for MS-DOS before the days of the internet, so I had not heard of Duff's device.
When I did, the similarity between the techniques was immediately apparent.
The original Pigeon's device was in a function for comparing two date/time records in various different manners according to the desired sort order - FORWARD, forward chr
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