这个问题可能听起来相当简单,但这是我与另一位开发人员的争论。
我小心地在我可以的地方进行堆栈分配,而不是堆分配。他和我说话,看着我的肩膀,并评论说,这是没有必要的,因为他们的表现是一样的。
在我的印象中,增加堆栈是一个常数时间,而堆分配的性能取决于当前堆的复杂性,包括分配(找到合适大小的孔)和反分配(缩小孔以减少碎片,如果我没有弄错的话,许多标准库实现在删除过程中需要时间来做这件事)。
在我看来,这可能非常依赖于编译器。在这个项目中,我特别使用了一个用于PPC架构的Metrowerks编译器。对这种组合的深入了解将是最有帮助的,但一般来说,对于GCC和msvc++,情况如何?堆分配不如堆栈分配高效吗?没有区别吗?还是差异如此之小以至于变成了毫无意义的微观优化。
尽管堆分配器可以简单地使用基于堆栈的分配技术,但堆栈分配几乎总是与堆分配一样快或更快。
However, there are larger issues when dealing with the overall performance of stack vs. heap based allocation (or in slightly better terms, local vs. external allocation). Usually, heap (external) allocation is slow because it is dealing with many different kinds of allocations and allocation patterns. Reducing the scope of the allocator you are using (making it local to the algorithm/code) will tend to increase performance without any major changes. Adding better structure to your allocation patterns, for example, forcing a LIFO ordering on allocation and deallocation pairs can also improve your allocator's performance by using the allocator in a simpler and more structured way. Or, you can use or write an allocator tuned for your particular allocation pattern; most programs allocate a few discrete sizes frequently, so a heap that is based on a lookaside buffer of a few fixed (preferably known) sizes will perform extremely well. Windows uses its low-fragmentation-heap for this very reason.
另一方面,如果线程太多,在32位内存范围上基于堆栈的分配也充满了危险。堆栈需要一个连续的内存范围,因此线程越多,就需要更多的虚拟地址空间来让它们在没有堆栈溢出的情况下运行。对于64位的程序来说,这(目前)不是问题,但是对于具有大量线程的长时间运行的程序来说,它肯定会造成严重破坏。由于碎片化而导致虚拟地址空间耗尽总是一件令人痛苦的事情。