>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Michael A. Stone
> > Sent: Saturday, April 10, 1999 6:39 AM
>
> > > ... a programer using perl could get the same work
> > > done in say 50% of the time needed to do it in C.
Something like that, maybe, depending on program size. As pointed
out, on larger projects, Perl could actually be far slower due to lack of
certain bug protection mechanisms, like strong typing, enforced
by forced declarations, etc.
> > it's well documented that there are order-of-magnitude
> > differences in productivity between programmers with identical
> > resumes, working in the same language, and on the same project.
As I had said in a report I write for ITT, years back.
> It's also well documented, though less widely known, that there
> are similar order-of-magnitude differences in the maintainability
> of code from different programmers, and lesser but still
And How!!!
> significant differences in reliability. Programmers with high
> scores in one of these areas are somewhat more likely to have
> high scores in one or both of the others, but a single person
> at the top of all three is still a very rare bird.
Lets just say I am above average...
>
> I personally find it extremely difficult to write maintainable
> (readable, easy to understand) code in Perl and somewhat
> difficult to do so in C/C++. Java is about the same, but because
> you can use Ada anywhere you can use Java (as there are two
> Ada 95 compilers that compile to Java byte codes), I rarely
> write Java voluntarily. Ada, Modula, and Pascal/Delphi are easiest.
Interesting...
> > ... meanwhile, the overhead of the interpreter increases
> > geometrically with the program's size,
>
> I don't think you meant "geometrically" in its formally-defined
> sense. Overhead is actually linearly proportional to program
> execution time (not size), it just becomes way more noticeable
> and painful with big programs that take a long time to run.
It all depends upon what the bottleneck is. Some things can be
hand coded in assembly language by an expert, and not be noticeably faster
than a sloppy interpreter. Most of those fall into the category of "data
flow" problems and architectures. In those, you are just waiting for the
disk drive heads to move, or the data to be transferred into cache memory.
I've got one of them, the web reports program. When I optimized for data
flow by using sorts instead of databases, and spread data source, sort
space, and data destination to three drives, execution time went from 45
minutes to about 2 or 3 minutes per report. The memory wasn't thrashing,
the disk drive heads were not jittering back and forth, and the processor
no longer had to wait as long for the heads to get to the right spot on
the disk.
> So true! Being a purist in any direction ("Perl is best;"
> "COBOL is for Losers;" "Linux Rules;" "Microsoft Sucks;"
> "Ada is The Greatest Language Ever.") is among the worst
> mistakes you can make.
Well, essentially, each has a domain in which it is fairly strong.
> My rule of thumb for optimizing code for speed, memory size,
> or storage size:
>
> Don't Do It.
> (For Experts Only): Don't Do It Yet.
I do it all the time. I think it is called craftsmanship. Yes it
takes some craftsmanship to deliver on due date, but taking resource costs
into consideration during development can lead to rather good gains. And
it isn't just trading this resource off vs another; it is mostly about
coming up with a good clean DESCRIPTION of what you are trying to
accomplish, and elaborating it. The greatest gains I have made, are
always at the algorithm level.
Moving this one to the list at e-groups... replies, please delete the
just4u list.
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