Re: Speedy compilers

Rudi Ziegaus (Rudi.Ziegaus@bingo.baynet.de) wrote:
: [ re how much people care about compile speed vs. runtime speed ]


: BUT : functionality before speed.


: I remember a book I read during my studies where the author cited a
: case, to which he was called. A program that had to be fast, did not
: work. He provided a program that was running correctly, but was way
: slower than the original one.


: The original program's author pointed to this speed difference. The
: author of the book replied, that he could write a program that would
: be done in less than a second, if the result was not importent ...


The story is from "The Psychology of Computer Programming",
by Gerald Weinberg. IMHO, anybody wishing to seriously discuss
software engineering should read this book. Another key concept
in it is "Fischer's Fundamental Theorem". One size does not fit
all. :-)


: I believe, many speed improvements can be gained by


: a) clever parameter passing (registers)
: b) optimized libraries


You forgot "Appropriate data representation" :-)


Mike
| albaugh@agames.com, speaking only for myself
[Great book. I believe that if you're blind and get the Recording for
the Blind version, the voice you'll hear will be mine. -John]

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