Re: [Gnucap-devel] two event queue questions

[al davis]

On Thursday 07 June 2012, Felix Salfelder wrote:
> verilog uses a discrete time (uint64_t), while gnucap runs
> with double (also 64 bit) time. unless time is really big,
> it's no problem to schedule all the events of a verilog
> device after converting to double. but then, i don't see why
> gnucap does use double for the master time.

Using a double was the obvious choice originally, years ago.  In 
a way, it still is but as you point out, sometimes an 
alternative non-obvious choice may be a better choice.

Looking again, I could easily see defining a new type "TIME", 
following gnucap's convention of class names being all caps.  
This "TIME" needs to interface with double expressions like a 
double but could have a different representation inside.

If you want to try it ...

Initially typedef TIME to be double.  Keep this as a reference 
for performance comparison.

Then, define a class TIME that initially is just a double, but 
enforces strict type checking and adds a bit of overhead.  You 
will need to add all of the access functions and operations so 
it can be used the same.  Disable implicit conversions so you 
will catch all of the places it is used.  Benchmark again to 
verify that you haven't messed it up.

Now, you can change the representation under the hood to try 
alternative representations.