[anonymoushn]

When compiling code like

  if a > b
    b = a
    continue
  else
    continue

you can replace the entire if-else with a cmov. but if there is a function call in one of the prongs and not in the other, you cannot.

[mcv]

Ah, so it's the function call (which could just as easily have been something other than print), that forces the compiler to use a normally-less-optimal branch rather than the normally-more-optimal cmov. Only in this particular use case, cmov is actually less optimal, but the compiler doesn't know that.