On Mon, 3 Sep 2001, Eyal Lotem wrote:
[snip]
> With optimizing compilers - this is a non-issue, and just like a C programmer
> knows a division operation is much more expensive than an addition, a C++
> programmer knows a temporary construction and "implicit" copy constructions
> are more expensive than other alternatives.
[snip]
> Some operations are expensive, this should be known to the programmer, in
> both C and C++, when calling expensive functions, or in C++: when invoking
> expensive language operations. Almost all interesting work in C is done via
[snip]
While I generally agree with much of your posting, in this section, I
think you highly over-rate the knowledge/competence of programmers in
general. Certainly, the hardcore minority, particularly those who have
studied compiler design or done alot of assembly and/or device driver
programming, understand the overhead of the various language constructs,
but in my experience, the overwhelming majority of programmers work only
at the application level and haven't a clue how expensive various
operations are.
Shannon C. Dealy | DeaTech Research Inc.
[EMAIL PROTECTED] | - Custom Software Development -
| Embedded Systems, Real-time, Device Drivers
Phone: (800) 467-5820 | Networking, Scientific & Engineering Applications
or: (541) 451-5177 | www.deatech.com
