Re: Fibonacci series recursion error

References	(7 earlier) <sjhv88-r7a.ln1@svn.schaathun.net> <4dbd221a$0$29991$c3e8da3$5496439d@news.astraweb.com> <iklv88-nba.ln1@svn.schaathun.net> <mailman.1048.1304288688.9059.python-list@python.org> <can298-lgg.ln1@svn.schaathun.net>
Date	2011-05-03 07:56 +1000
Subject	Re: Fibonacci series recursion error
From	Chris Angelico <rosuav@gmail.com>
Newsgroups	comp.lang.python
Message-ID	<mailman.1080.1304373390.9059.python-list@python.org> (permalink)

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On Mon, May 2, 2011 at 11:14 PM, Hans Georg Schaathun <hg@schaathun.net> wrote:
> That's the silliest argument I ever heard.  The programmer should write
> the code the way he and application domain experts think, i.e. very
> often recursively.  The compiler should generate code the way the CPU
> thinks (most optimally), i.e. iteratively.

The CPU can function iteratively or recursively. The main difference
between the programmer and the CPU there is that the CPU is always
imperative, while a programmer might want to think functionally, or in
an event-driven model, and then "under the covers" the compiler
translates that into imperative code.

But in my opinion, the programmer and the interpreter/compiler are
teammates. If you allow programmers to be stupid, you will get a lot
of stupid programmers writing code. (I think that's one of PHP's
biggest downsides.) If the human and the machine know each other well
enough, the resulting code can be orders of magnitude more efficient
to run, *without taking any more tme to code* because the programmer
already knew the right things to do.

Perhaps it will take you four hours to read through something, study
it, maybe eyeball the compiler's source code, maybe do some
disassembly. If you have a few years of career ahead of you, you'll
benefit many times over from those few hours, and without spending
extra time, you'll produce better code. THAT is what distinguishes the
master from the novice.

Chris Angelico

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Re: Fibonacci series recursion error Paul Rudin <paul.nospam@rudin.co.uk> - 2011-04-30 15:40 +0100
  Re: Fibonacci series recursion error Hans Georg Schaathun <hg@schaathun.net> - 2011-05-01 09:18 +0100
    Re: Fibonacci series recursion error Steven D'Aprano <steve+comp.lang.python@pearwood.info> - 2011-05-01 09:04 +0000
      Re: Fibonacci series recursion error Hans Georg Schaathun <hg@schaathun.net> - 2011-05-01 10:27 +0100
        Re: Fibonacci series recursion error Steven D'Aprano <steve+comp.lang.python@pearwood.info> - 2011-05-01 11:56 +0000
          Re: Fibonacci series recursion error Hans Georg Schaathun <hg@schaathun.net> - 2011-05-01 14:15 +0100
            Re: Fibonacci series recursion error Chris Angelico <rosuav@gmail.com> - 2011-05-02 06:49 +1000
              Re: Fibonacci series recursion error Hans Georg Schaathun <hg@schaathun.net> - 2011-05-02 06:36 +0100
                Re: Fibonacci series recursion error Chris Angelico <rosuav@gmail.com> - 2011-05-02 16:28 +1000
                Re: Fibonacci series recursion error Chris Angelico <rosuav@gmail.com> - 2011-05-02 16:30 +1000
                Re: Fibonacci series recursion error (slightly OT) Dave Angel <davea@ieee.org> - 2011-05-02 08:50 -0400
            Re: Fibonacci series recursion error Steven D'Aprano <steve+comp.lang.python@pearwood.info> - 2011-05-02 01:09 +0000
              Re: Fibonacci series recursion error Hans Georg Schaathun <hg@schaathun.net> - 2011-05-02 10:41 +0100
        Re: Fibonacci series recursion error Terry Reedy <tjreedy@udel.edu> - 2011-05-01 18:24 -0400
          Re: Fibonacci series recursion error Hans Georg Schaathun <hg@schaathun.net> - 2011-05-02 14:14 +0100
            Re: Fibonacci series recursion error Steven D'Aprano <steve+comp.lang.python@pearwood.info> - 2011-05-02 16:41 +0000
              Re: Fibonacci series recursion error Hans Georg Schaathun <hg@schaathun.net> - 2011-05-02 21:02 +0100
                Re: Fibonacci series recursion error Steven D'Aprano <steve+comp.lang.python@pearwood.info> - 2011-05-03 00:21 +0000
                Re: Fibonacci series recursion error rusi <rustompmody@gmail.com> - 2011-05-02 20:42 -0700
                Re: Fibonacci series recursion error Hans Georg Schaathun <hg@schaathun.net> - 2011-05-03 06:13 +0100
                Re: Fibonacci series recursion error Robert Brown <robert.brown@gmail.com> - 2011-05-08 01:44 -0400
                Re: Fibonacci series recursion error Steven D'Aprano <steve+comp.lang.python@pearwood.info> - 2011-05-08 12:59 +0000
                Development time vs. runtime performance (was: Fibonacci series recursion error) Teemu Likonen <tlikonen@iki.fi> - 2011-05-08 19:34 +0300
                Re: Development time vs. runtime performance (was: Fibonacci series recursion error) Chris Angelico <rosuav@gmail.com> - 2011-05-09 12:49 +1000
                Re: Development time vs. runtime performance (was: Fibonacci series recursion error) Robert Brown <robert.brown@gmail.com> - 2011-05-08 23:01 -0400
            Re: Fibonacci series recursion error Terry Reedy <tjreedy@udel.edu> - 2011-05-02 14:56 -0400
            Re: Fibonacci series recursion error Chris Angelico <rosuav@gmail.com> - 2011-05-03 07:56 +1000
              Re: Fibonacci series recursion error Hans Georg Schaathun <hg@schaathun.net> - 2011-05-03 08:01 +0100

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