5 ms·

> Pike's rules 1 and 2 restate Tony Hoare's famous maxim "Premature optimization is the root of all evil." Looks like wrongly attributed to Hoare? That famous

• dws 9y ago
  There's some debate about that. Knuth at one point (in Literate Programming) attributes it to Hoare, and Hoare later attributes it to Knuth.
  • deleted 9y ago
    [deleted]
• mpweiher 9y ago
  Full Knuth quote: "We should forget about small efficiencies, say about 97% of the time: premature optimization is the root of all evil. Yet we should not pass up our opportunities in that critical 3%." 1. It is only ever about small efficiencies. 2. And about small efficiencies in the 97% non-critical parts So: 1. It is always valid to concern yourself with large efficiencies. 2. In the critical 3%, it is also legitimate to worry about small efficiencies. For context, later in the same paper (Structured Programming with goto statements): “The conventional wisdom [..] calls for ignoring efficiency in the small; but I believe this is simply an overreaction [..] In established engineering disciplines a 12% improvement, easily obtained, is never considered marginal; and I believe the same viewpoint should prevail in software engineering." So his actual message is pretty much the opposite of what is attributed to him.
  • fiddlerwoaroof 9y ago
    The issue though is that optimizing for performance is, in most cases, optimizing for the wrong thing if it makes your code harder to understand, maintain and test.
  • rdiddly 9y ago
    The key is the phrase "easily obtained." Always balance the efficiency benefits against the programming costs, i.e. time & effort.