C optimizer problem -- does DEC have a response?

[Michel Fingerhut]

Several public domain large packages of software fail to run correctly
when compiled with any of the -O options of cc (under ultrix 3.1 that I
know of, and 4.0 according to reports in this group).  This is notably
true of TeX, and true (according to my experience) with perl.

I had reported my problem (perl) to the local Dec branch several months
ago, but there still seems to be a major problem around: IS THE OPTIMIZED
OUTPUT OF CC  W R O N G ?  That's important to know, no?  So please Dec,
if you hear me, what is the situation?  Did you compile your kernel, for
instance, with optimization or without?  Is it safe?

PS: We had also reported a cryptic error message from the compiler (in
another situation) namely:
	libmld: Internal: st_pdn_idn: idn (-8) less than 0 or greater than max (3170)
and never got a reply what it was all about.