[linux-audio-dev] [ot] [rant] gcc, you let me down one time too many

[Jan Depner]

On Mon, 2005-06-06 at 10:38, Fred Gleason wrote:
> On Monday 06 June 2005 10:37, Mario Lang wrote:
> > Heh, thats a Redmond argument I'd say :-).
> > There is nothing wrong (ok, not that much) with accidentally
> > wasting CPU time, but if you are aware of where are you
> > wasting it, I dont buy the argument that it is OK to leave it like that
> > :-).
> 
> Actually, it's an *engineering* argument.  Technology design is full of 
> situations where getting the last 5% of a given possible performance can end 
> up costing 500% more than getting the original 95% did.  This is called the 
> 'law of diminishing returns'.  The principle is much, *much* wider than just 
> computer application design.
> 
> 
> > And, even start up time counts, I find programs that need a long
> > time to start anoying, and LONG is a very subjective number :-).
> 
> I would too, although I personally don't know that I'd call 3/4 sec a LONG 
> time to initialize a GUI application.  The point I was trying to make is that 
> tradeoffs are part of the very warp and woof of the design process, and it's 
> impossible to develop anything efficiently without taking due cognizance of 
> that fact.  Given the choice between spending a day adding a significant new 
> feature to an application or spending the same amount of time reducing that 
> application's start-up delay from 3/4 to 1/4 sec, I'll go for the first 
> option every time.  Remember, *coding time* is your ultimate resource as a 
> programmer -- you want to invest it where you'll get you the biggest bang for 
> the buck.
> 

    I just have to respond to this.  I have been writing code for 27
years and every time I get a neophyte programmer in they want to cut
corners to save programming time.  Here's the bottom line - if it saves
you a day in coding but costs the user 3/4 of a second in application
time would you consider that a good tradeoff?  Not if you have over 100
users and they're having to deal with that 3/4 of a second 20 or so
times a day, every day for a year.  Remember, it's only hard for you to
program it correctly once - it's a PITA for the user many times a day.


Jan