peephole optimization

English

Etymology

Coined by computer scientist William Marshall McKeeman in 1965, from peephole + optimization.

Noun

peephole optimization (countable and uncountable, plural peephole optimizations)

  1. (software compilation) An optimization that works by eliminating redundant instructions from a small area of source code.
    The loop was more than twice as fast after I had applied peephole optimization.
    • 1979, P. J. Brown, editor, Software Portability: An Advanced Course, Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 149:
      The method of peephole optimization was described by McKeeman (1965). A simple code generator is replaced by one where short instruction sequences are replaced by ones which are shorter or faster.
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