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From: pes@ux63.bath.ac.uk (Paul Smee)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: Writing High-Level code (was Re: The Next Amiga)
Message-ID: <980@bath63.ux63.bath.ac.uk>
Date: Thu, 23-Apr-87 05:44:38 EDT
Article-I.D.: bath63.980
Posted: Thu Apr 23 05:44:38 1987
Date-Received: Sun, 26-Apr-87 04:33:42 EDT
References: <3367@udenva.UUCP> <6248@ukmj.ukma.ms.uky.csnet>
Reply-To: pes@ux63.bath.ac.uk (Paul Smee)
Organization: AUCC c/o University of Bath
Lines: 20


I think the main problem with writing super-fast code is that a lot of
programmers have lost their sense of perspective.  Sure, for time-critical
stuff (high-speed terminal emulators, flight simulators, ...) you gotta
be efficient.  And, for things which will be used a **lot** (either by you,
or by lots of people) it can pay off.  On the other hand, it's frequently
nothing more than a waste of time.

For example, I recently re-wrote a data packing algorithm on our mainframe,
for one of our users.  Took 2 or 3 days of my time to make it absolutely
minimal.  He likes it, because it saves him about 20 seconds of CPU time
per run.  He's the only one who uses the program, and he uses it about
twice a week.  So, in only another 60 years (more or less) it will have
saved the time it took to produce it.  Of course, we're replacing our
mainframe (certainly incompatibly at the object level) in 12 months.

So, totally counter-productive -- except for the entertainment value, cause
I had lots of fun doing it.  Purely from an efficiency standpoint, though,
an awful lot of programs (I'd guess most) are best written in a quick-and-dirty
style, and then you can use your time to get on with something else useful.