Subtle Semantic Changes After Optimization

Some optimizations can alter subtle semantics of the script, causing the script to behave differently when run with or without optimization.

Typically, this involves some form of error that may arise in the original, unoptimized script but is optimized away by the script optimizer.

DO NOT depend on runtime errors

Needless to say, it is usually a Very Bad Idea™ to depend on a script failing with a runtime error or such kind of subtleties.

If it turns out to be necessary (why? I would never guess), turn script optimization off by setting the optimization level to OptimizationLevel::None.

Disappearing Runtime Errors

For example:

if true {           // condition always true
    123.456;        // eliminated
    hello;          // eliminated, EVEN THOUGH the variable doesn't exist!
    foo(42)         // promoted up-level
}

foo(42)             // <- the above optimizes to this

If the original script were evaluated instead, it would have been an error – the variable hello does not exist, so the script would have been terminated at that point with a runtime error.

In fact, any errors inside a statement that has been eliminated will silently disappear.

print("start!");
if my_decision { /* do nothing... */ }  // eliminated due to no effect
print("end!");

// The above optimizes to:

print("start!");
print("end!");

In the script above, if my_decision holds anything other than a boolean value, the script should have been terminated due to a type error.

However, after optimization, the entire if statement is removed (because an access to my_decision produces no side-effects), thus the script silently runs to completion without errors.

Eliminated Useless Work

Another example is more subtle – that of an empty loop body.

// ... say, the 'Engine' is limited to no more than 10,000 operations...

// The following should fail because it exceeds the operations limit:
for n in 0..42000 {
    // empty loop
}

// The above is optimized away because the loop body is empty
// and the iterations simply do nothing.
()

Normally, and empty loop body inside a for statement with a pure iterator does nothing and can be safely eliminated.

Thus the script now runs silently to completion without errors.

Without optimization, the script may fail by exceeding the maximum number of operations allowed.