Re: [Nolug] Introducing myself

I don't dismiss knowing the hardware.

I have (and will again I am sure) had to squeeze every last ounce of
performance out of code. For me, there is a point where I don't see a
real world return in rewriting functional code to make it more
efficient. One of my customers writes testing software (Frank Cohen).
 And we tune things until they are fast enough. I appreciate the
drive (and the motivation behind it) to make every bit of code as
efficient as possible. So we can actually appreciate the
responsiveness moores law should afford us. I do my part :)

I wouldn't consider something that took hours to do what could be done
in minutes; correct and well-coded.

I just don't think that learning asm first (as I took your original
email about this) should be a requirement. But, rather, a supplement
instead. (Which you have later clarified as your view). So.... we
agree? ;)

I do know who I will be consulting about performance issues when my
limited knowledge of higher level math can't immediately solve the
problem.

On Sun, Dec 7, 2008 at 11:03 AM, Ron Johnson <ron.l.johnson@cox.net> wrote:
> On 12/07/08 10:24, Friedrich Gurtler wrote:
>>
>> On Sun, Dec 7, 2008 at 3:25 AM, Ron Johnson <ron.l.johnson@cox.net> wrote:
>>>
>>> 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?
>>
>>
>> I read that as "my goal is to provide value" which is what I want to hear
>> from a developer.
>>
>> Also, you seem to equate "quality of the source code" with efficiency
>> first. I tend to equate quality of the source code with correctness,
>> maintainability, some other stuff, then efficiency.
>
> (Aside: I was criticized in my younger days for writing "obvious" code,
> instead of "being clever". Mainly because I had to maintain clever code,
> and hated it.)
>
> Since I also value correctness and maintainability, we seem to be saying the
> same thing.
>
> But... as a DBA, I've (and rejected from production) seen lots of
> functionally correct, well-coded software that used horrible and/ or
> inappropriate algorithms that change the run in hours, when a correct
> algorithm would run in minutes or seconds.
>
> The programmers who consistently write such code are usually young, and
> always have little knowledge and or care about the "guts" (h/w, RDBMS,
> layout of data) of the system.
>
> That's why I get cranky when people dismiss knowing the h/w.
>
> --
> 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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Received on 12/07/08