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Re: use of pointers

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On Wednesday, March 7, 2012 2:56:46 PM UTC+1, none wrote:

> Sounds like old-style C programmer: "I believe it is too expensive".
> One really should either test or if the effort of testing is
> considered not worth it, use the most readable, most useable and less
> bug prone technique.  Never use a less readable technique because it
> is "believed" to be less CPU expensive.

As Donald Knuth once put it: "There is no doubt that the grail 
of efficiency leads to abuse. Programmers waste enormous amounts 
of time thinking about, or worrying about, the speed of noncritical 
parts of their programs, and these attempts at efficiency actually 
have a strong negative impact when debugging and maintenance are 
considered. We should forget about small efficiencies, say about 
97% of the time: premature optimization is the root of all evil."

Only start optimizing once you have tested your code, and are 
satisfied that it is correct. And only start to optimize when 
you have seen that there is a performance issue, and have 
pinpointed the issue with a profiler. 

Yes, Donald Knuth leaves you 3% where it does matter. But he 
also states that you should only worry about that after you 
have identified that code.

Article can be found from 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Program_optimization

Maarten

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use of pointers ahso <ahso47@yahoo.com> - 2012-03-06 02:54 -0800
  Re: use of pointers Marcel Müller <news.5.maazl@spamgourmet.com> - 2012-03-06 12:22 +0100
    Re: use of pointers nick_keighley_nospam@hotmail.com - 2012-03-07 00:32 -0800
      Re: use of pointers Juha Nieminen <nospam@thanks.invalid> - 2012-03-07 13:47 +0000
        Re: use of pointers nick_keighley_nospam@hotmail.com - 2012-03-07 07:06 -0800
          Re: use of pointers Juha Nieminen <nospam@thanks.invalid> - 2012-03-07 16:04 +0000
  Re: use of pointers Juha Nieminen <nospam@thanks.invalid> - 2012-03-06 12:29 +0000
    Re: use of pointers Victor Bazarov <v.bazarov@comcast.invalid> - 2012-03-06 08:04 -0500
      Re: use of pointers glen herrmannsfeldt <gah@ugcs.caltech.edu> - 2012-03-06 14:05 +0000
        Re: use of pointers Victor Bazarov <v.bazarov@comcast.invalid> - 2012-03-06 11:25 -0500
          Re: use of pointers glen herrmannsfeldt <gah@ugcs.caltech.edu> - 2012-03-06 20:56 +0000
      Re: use of pointers SG <s.gesemann@gmail.com> - 2012-03-06 06:27 -0800
        Re: use of pointers BGB <cr88192@hotmail.com> - 2012-03-06 13:05 -0700
        Re: use of pointers woodbrian77@gmail.com - 2012-03-07 05:38 -0800
      Re: use of pointers Rui Maciel <rui.maciel@gmail.com> - 2012-03-07 15:48 +0000
        Re: use of pointers BGB <cr88192@hotmail.com> - 2012-03-07 18:38 -0700
          Re: use of pointers Pavel <pauldontspamtolk@removeyourself.dontspam.yahoo> - 2012-03-10 21:10 -0500
            Re: use of pointers Jeff Flinn <TriumphSprint2000@hotmail.com> - 2012-03-12 08:26 -0400
              Re: use of pointers Jeff Flinn <TriumphSprint2000@hotmail.com> - 2012-03-12 12:28 -0400
      Re: use of pointers Nobody <nobody@nowhere.com> - 2012-03-09 21:28 +0000
  Re: use of pointers Geoff <geoff@invalid.invalid> - 2012-03-06 21:31 -0800
    Re: use of pointers Jorgen Grahn <grahn+nntp@snipabacken.se> - 2012-03-07 11:26 +0000
      Re: use of pointers yatremblay@bel1lin202.(none) (Yannick Tremblay) - 2012-03-07 13:56 +0000
        Re: use of pointers Maarten <maarten.sneep@knmi.nl> - 2012-03-07 06:14 -0800
          Re: use of pointers Rui Maciel <rui.maciel@gmail.com> - 2012-03-07 16:05 +0000
            Re: use of pointers yatremblay@bel1lin202.(none) (Yannick Tremblay) - 2012-03-08 10:08 +0000
              Re: use of pointers Rui Maciel <rui.maciel@gmail.com> - 2012-03-08 21:17 +0000
            Re: use of pointers Maarten <maarten.sneep@knmi.nl> - 2012-03-08 04:55 -0800
          Re: use of pointers Nobody <nobody@nowhere.com> - 2012-03-09 21:45 +0000
        Re: use of pointers Jorgen Grahn <grahn+nntp@snipabacken.se> - 2012-03-07 20:08 +0000
      Re: use of pointers Nobody <nobody@nowhere.com> - 2012-03-09 21:50 +0000
        Re: use of pointers Jorgen Grahn <grahn+nntp@snipabacken.se> - 2012-03-09 22:37 +0000
  Re: use of pointers Rui Maciel <rui.maciel@gmail.com> - 2012-03-07 15:37 +0000

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