I don't think I was clear enough, it simplifies to zero code (not even a jump) just the original input. (I thought about saying noop but even that's wasteful.)
>"it's slow"
Again, it's just a technique; think writing embedded code with a really dumb compiler. Anyway, saying its slow is not really a counter argument if your limited to say 2,000 bytes of ram you will make lot's of tradeoffs between efficiency and speed. Perhaps you have a select statement perhaps you don't, but starting off with pure ASM is often a pain.
EDIT: This is all from the perspective of dealing with tools that don't do tail call optimization, not writing a compiler / VM etc.
>"it's slow"
Again, it's just a technique; think writing embedded code with a really dumb compiler. Anyway, saying its slow is not really a counter argument if your limited to say 2,000 bytes of ram you will make lot's of tradeoffs between efficiency and speed. Perhaps you have a select statement perhaps you don't, but starting off with pure ASM is often a pain.
EDIT: This is all from the perspective of dealing with tools that don't do tail call optimization, not writing a compiler / VM etc.