[llvm-dev] RFC: Adding a string table to the bitcode format

[Rafael Espíndola via llvm-dev]

> It might do, keeping in mind that reading pretty much every existing object
> file format already requires scanning for string lengths. Certainly
> something to try and evaluate, at least.

In lld strlen does show up in the profile. I haven't benchmarked it
recently enough to remember exactly how much.

The string table builder code currently supports tail merging. On ELF
at least that is a very modest size saving. If the size is written as
a prefix to the string, that doesn't work. If the size is stored in
the reference (like a stringef) we would be able to merge any
substring (not sure if it is profitable).

Cheers,
Rafael