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From: Ian Kelly <ian.g.kelly@gmail.com>
Date: Tue, 12 May 2015 21:46:52 -0600
Subject: Re: Instead of deciding between Python or Lisp for a programming intro course...What about an intro course that uses *BOTH*? Good idea?
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On Tue, May 12, 2015 at 9:11 PM, zipher <dreamingforward@gmail.com> wrote:
> I know.  That's because most people have fallen off the path (http://c2.c=
om/cgi/wiki?OneTruePath).

You wrote that, didn't you? I recognize that combination of delusional
narcissism and curious obsession with Turing machines.

> You haven't done it because either others have done it for you (NumPy) or=
 you simply aren't perfecting anything that needs to scale; i.e. you don't =
really need to minimize memory or CPU consumption because you're working wi=
th toy problems relative to the power of most hardware these days.

There is such a thing as over-optimization. Given unlimited programmer
time, sure, everything might be made to run using the minimum possible
time and space. Nobody has unlimited time, though. The job of the
programmer is to get the program to run "fast enough" for the needs of
the application. Getting it to run faster than it needs to is
generally a waste of the programmer's time that could be spent on more
valuable tasks.

Of course, I say this as somebody who works on a highly scaled
user-facing application that will never be "fast enough". :-)