Beefy Boxes and Bandwidth Generously Provided by pair Networks
Come for the quick hacks, stay for the epiphanies.
 
PerlMonks  

comment on

( [id://3333]=superdoc: print w/replies, xml ) Need Help??

You'll find many nodes on the topic of performance optimization. Let me summarize all of them for you: don't optimize unless you need to.

One of the biggest issues programmers face (myself included) is the tendency to say "this won't run fast so I had better speed it up." The reality is, if it runs fast enough, it runs fast enough. Particularly as a system gets large, it becomes more and more difficult to guess what will really speed things up. Even if you speed up a loop 100 times, if the program only spends one percent of its time there you've likely wasted your effort.

But optimizing isn't really bad, is it? I mean, if I optimize everything won't my program will run really fast?

The answer to that is a resounding NO! I can't recall offhand who said it, but one telling quote is "it's easier to optimize correct code than to correct optimized code." Every hoop you jump through to squeeze out every little bit of performance is another chance for your foot to catch on that hoop and make you stumble. You'll likely introduce more bugs and you'll simply waste time trying to second guess whether or not a particular construct can be faster when what you really want to be doing is delivering product. You'll also be more likely to obfuscate your code and make maintenance more difficult. Only when you have a deliverable and you can get an idea how it's likely to be used in a production environment can you really begin to start performance profiling to find out where the bottlenecks, if any, are.

In summary, do not fall into the time-wasting trap of second guessing the performance of your code. Make your code correct and only when you really have a performance problem should you start profiling things. With a performance profile in hand, then you can know where you should be optimizing instead of guessing.

(Note: the above is good general advice and there are definitely times it should be ignored, but once you get to the point where you can make the distinction you'll be giving others this advice :)

Cheers,
Ovid

New address of my CGI Course.


In reply to Re^3: String manipulation by Ovid
in thread String manipulation by hotshot

Title:
Use:  <p> text here (a paragraph) </p>
and:  <code> code here </code>
to format your post; it's "PerlMonks-approved HTML":



  • Are you posting in the right place? Check out Where do I post X? to know for sure.
  • Posts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags. Currently these include the following:
    <code> <a> <b> <big> <blockquote> <br /> <dd> <dl> <dt> <em> <font> <h1> <h2> <h3> <h4> <h5> <h6> <hr /> <i> <li> <nbsp> <ol> <p> <small> <strike> <strong> <sub> <sup> <table> <td> <th> <tr> <tt> <u> <ul>
  • Snippets of code should be wrapped in <code> tags not <pre> tags. In fact, <pre> tags should generally be avoided. If they must be used, extreme care should be taken to ensure that their contents do not have long lines (<70 chars), in order to prevent horizontal scrolling (and possible janitor intervention).
  • Want more info? How to link or How to display code and escape characters are good places to start.
Log In?
Username:
Password:

What's my password?
Create A New User
Domain Nodelet?
Chatterbox?
and the web crawler heard nothing...

How do I use this?Last hourOther CB clients
Other Users?
Others having a coffee break in the Monastery: (3)
As of 2024-03-29 14:52 GMT
Sections?
Information?
Find Nodes?
Leftovers?
    Voting Booth?

    No recent polls found