This PR fixes two bugs at once:
1. Indices were incorrectly extended to a bigger type. Specifically,
unsigned integers were sign extended and signed integers were zero
extended. This commit swaps them around.
2. The getelementptr instruction was given the raw index, even if it
was a uint8 for example. However, getelementptr assumes the indices
are signed, and therefore an index of uint8(200) was interpreted as
an index of int8(-56).
This commit optimizes string literals and globals by setting the
appropriate alignment and using a nil pointer in zero-length strings.
- Setting the alignment for string values has a surprisingly large
effect, up to around 2% in binary size. I suspect that LLVM will
pick some default alignment for larger byte arrays if no alignment
has been specified and forcing an alignment of 1 will pack all
strings closer together.
- Using nil for zero-length strings also has a positive effect, but
I'm not sure why. Perhaps it makes some optimizations more trivial.
- Always setting the alignment on globals improves code size slightly,
probably for the same reasons setting the alignment of string
literals improves code size. The effect is much smaller, however.
This commit might have an effect on performance, but if it does this
should be tested separately and such a large win in binary size should
definitely not be ignored for small embedded systems.
