[ale] gcc

[Jeff Hubbs]

I really don't disagree with what either of you are saying.  The use of 
a profiler (which wasn't available to me "back in the day") would be 
extremely beneficial because then you can put your effort to work on 
actual problem areas instead of just relying on supposition and 
guesswork.  And, if compilers are smart enough to make the best result 
of what you write even if what you write is "sub-optimal," then, I say, 
good, code for readability!

I was really only trying to show alternatives as opposed to hard 
examples.  Also, please keep in mind that I stopped coding on a regular 
basis ten years ago; I'm sure compilers (esp. like gcc) and interpreters 
have improved a LOT in the meantime.  

- Jeff

Charles Shapiro wrote:

>Right On Dude. Code is for people to read. Leave optimization to the
>machine.  Use a profiler to determine speed bottlenecks; the results
>will often surprise you.  
>A coding buddy of mine once tried to speed up a billing program which
>took almost a full day to run on a large machine. He neglected the
>profiling step ('cause he thought he already knew the answers) and spent
>over a week making every sequential search in the thing into a binary
>search.  Total time saved: about 10 minutes in a 22-hour run.
>Micro-optimization is nearly always a waste of time compared to
>redesigning your algorithm for more speed.
>
>-- CHS
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Danny Cox [mailto:danscox at mindspring.com]
>Sent: Wednesday, April 03, 2002 7:02 AM
>To: ALE Mailing List
>Subject: Re: [ale] gcc
><<snip>>
>
>	Okay, hold it right there, buckaroo!  While all these ideas are
>good,
>most programmers get caught in the trap of early optimization, usually
>at the expense of readability.  In your example above:
>
>	for t=1 to 10 do
>	    if x < 3*t then
>		do_stuff;
>
>in my opinion should remain as it is.  Why?  Because that's probably NOT
>the bottleneck in the program!  Code for readability first (if you've
>got to maintain it, you'll save yourself grief later, and if it's
>someone else, they'll thank you), then use a profiler to see where the
>code is using most of it's time *if you need to*!  If it's fast enough
>already, leave well enough alone!
>
>---
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>




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