[julia-users] Re: Compilation time

[Steven G. Johnson]

It doesn't make sense to me to use code generation to spit out a literal 
expression for inputting a large sparse matrix on each iteration of 
optimization.   In no conceivable compiler will this be faster than just 
using a loop to generate the sparse matrix data structure, rather than 
using a loop to generate the code to generate the sparse matrix and then 
compiling the generated code.  It should be O(n) work in either case, but 
the constant factor will inevitably be worse for a compiler.