Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!lll-lcc!ames!xanth!nic.MR.NET!hal!cwjcc!gatech!ukma!psuvm.bitnet!cunyvm!ndsuvm1!ndsuvax!ncsmith
From: ncsmith@ndsuvax.UUCP (Timothy Smith)
Newsgroups: comp.arch
Subject: Re: Professional Programmers (was: Seeing the future)
Message-ID: <1992@ndsuvax.UUCP>
Date: 21 Dec 88 05:21:23 GMT
References: <1984@eos.UUCP> <28200245@mcdurb> <321@taux02.UUCP> <32353@think.UUCP> <331@taux02.UUCP>
Reply-To: ncsmith@ndsuvax.UUCP (Timothy Smith)
Organization: North Dakota State University, Fargo
Lines: 28


[ stuff about converting cos(atan(x)) to 1/(1+x*x) and why this has
  not much to do with programmers as opposed to mathematicians     ]
>
>This is exactly the point I was trying to make - to a mathematician,
>these two expressions are identical and interchangeable; to a programmer,
>one is an expression requiring two function calls (twice if your compiler
>is lousy) involving hundreds of operations, while the other requires just
>one multiply and one divide. It's the programmer's job to know these
>facts and use them.
>--
>        Amos Shapir                             amos@nsc.com

    I have to disagree with your last sentence.  If you extend this to
every area in which a programmer may be doing work, ie. accountting, taxes,
etc. then the programmer has to know about every trick in that area so
s/he can always optimze the programs s/he writes.  A little further extension
would be to remove the programmer from the picture entirely and teach the
specialist how to program the computer.  In my own opinion I think that the
programmer should examine what the specialist wants done, find areas that
look like canidates for optimization, and then ask the specialist if it
is possible to do a different set of operations that could be faster.  This
lets the specialist concetrate on his/her own area and the programmer
concentrate on the program.



--
Tim Smith     North Dakota State University,  Fargo, ND  58105
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