Combinatorial minimization

Personally, I wouldn't worry about how tools behave. At the end of the day it is the employers who will buy what the market trends suggest to the managers and they wouldn't listen to sporadic proofs from field engineers.

I doubt Altera will change their software outside their systematic approach.

Moreover, with automated code technology already in force, there is really "little" future left for HDL coding skills in my opinion. But I do look at this trend positively because coding skills and the tons of code take us really away from actual scientific knowledge and the fascination it creates.

Sorry for my off topic comment.