On: “C is how the computer works” is a dangerous mindset for C programmers

[kg]

Using a union still has the going-through-memory problem, though. I spent a day or two trying to coax clang into doing the efficient thing with a union a couple years back when I could have gotten the job done in 30 minutes with raw assembly (alas...)

RE: Return values, you'd be surprised. You can't assume you'll get properly optimized code for something like that in WebAssembly for example, despite the fact that you're using an industry-standard compiler (clang) and runtime (v8 or spidermonkey).

[saagarjha → kg]

> Using a union still has the going-through-memory problem, though.

Not with modern compilers: https://godbolt.org/z/e6sRqh

[kg → saagarjha]

That's a compile-time constant, effectively. What matters is real code.

[saagarjha → kg]

https://godbolt.org/z/MPCuw-