I listen to the "Retro Computing Roundtable", some time ago in one of their
discussions they referenced the idea that optimizing code would improve the
speed of an application some ridiculous amount, like 10x or more. The problem
was that traditionally spending a bunch of time optimizing code was wasted time
because you could just wait for the hardware to get faster...
The article Max referenced originally is very difficult to read. I'm hoping its
either AI generated or is translated from some other language...
-Curt
On Wednesday, February 24, 2021, 12:08:44 PM EST, Jim Cathey via Mercedes
<mercedes@okiebenz.com> wrote:
Silicon computing has reached a plateau. They can continue to multi-core
things, but software cannot be multi-cored easily, or very thoroughly. The
current performance limit IS software efficiency.
Current high-end desktop hardware would be able to serve thousands of
users simultaneously, IF the software (and, more importantly, expectations)
were written as efficiently as it was in the 1970's. It is not. Most
emphatically
not.
Nobody being trained today even has a clue as to how the machine actually
works inside. They think Python is 'low level'. _Interpreted_ Python, for
cryin'
out loud...
Or, once upon a time a Finance department would be using custom-written
database software. Now, however, they all spend their days e-mailing Excel
spreadsheets to each other, and flanging up macros to try to do some custom
reporting. Bleh.
Once upon a time, if one needed to, say, add up a large column of numbers stored
in a text file one would write a simple program (C, BASIC, etc.) to do this.
Fast to
write, and fast to execute. NOW, nobody would do anything else but throw Excel
at it. Maybe find out that the size of the file was more than Excel could
handle,
and then try chopping it up into multiple excel files, and ganging those
results together...
There is vast performance potential to be had by mining the software shitheap.
Whether it will get done or not...
-- Jim
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