Re: [Nolug] Introducing myself

On 12/06/08 23:32, Dennis J Harrison Jr wrote:
> Ron, you sound like a friend of mine. He is constantly preaching to
> me how much more math I should learn to write better programs. The
> only thing I can say is:

If he says that the purpose is to help instill mental rigor, then
I'd agree. Nothing more than integral calculus is needed, though.

> What is the real world benefit for me to write a program that runs 20%
> to 300% 'faster'. When 50% of the current speed is more then enough?

You're completely missing the point. The purpose of "knowing
hardware" is to instill a respect for limits.

> You can argue resource management all day long. However I take those
> things into consideration. Most of my programs have very limited
> client side footprints. I know throwing more hardware at a
> performance issue is barbaric. But I have not had to go there yet.
> We have SO MUCH head room on our infrastructure for our current
> customer base... I can't see a reason to spend time making it more
> efficient when I could spend time adding useful (to humans) code
> instead.

I *could* read that as "the hardware's so powerful, who gives a
rat's arse about the quality of the source code".

But I'm sure that's not what you meant... Is it?

> On Sat, Dec 6, 2008 at 5:15 PM, Ron Johnson <ron.l.johnson@cox.net> wrote:
>> On 12/06/08 15:07, Friedrich Gurtler wrote:
>>> On Sat, Dec 6, 2008 at 2:52 PM, Ron Johnson <ron.l.johnson@cox.net> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Python is a great learning scripting language, but new programmers *need*
>>>> to know the hardware. Assembly programming, preferably in MS-DOS or
>>>> CP/M,
>>>> would be best.
>>>>
>>>
>>> Indeed, and don't let them get near a database before they have written
>>> their own database engine. I mean, that might lead them to write something
>>> less than perfectly optimal. We couldn't have that.
>> What stupidity.
>>
>> Having to write rather complete binary tree and hash libraries has greatly
>> aided me as a DBA, even though I've never had to use such a hand-rolled
>> library in 20+ years.
>>
>>> Slide rules forever! =P
>> Everyone on this list who lived thru Katrina know how dependent upon
>> technology that Americans have become.
>>
>> Knowing how to use slide rules and magnetic compasses, read a map, start
>> fires without matches, etc, etc are all very useful skills.

-- 
Ron Johnson, Jr.
Jefferson LA  USA
How does being physically handicapped make me Differently-Abled?
What different abilities do I have?
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