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It's interesting to me that people's opinions on this subject are much like politics. You either make optimization a priority, or you don't optimize prematurely

It's interesting to me that people's opinions on this subject are much like politics. You either make optimization a priority, or you don't optimize prematurely. You write clever well written and commented imperative code, or clear concise functional code. They're two completely different schools of thought and may work well in either scenario. It depends a lot on your background, and your current context what way you are going to write code.

TeMPOraL 8y ago
I find your comment to be much like politics here. Presenting a false dichotomy. People who are obsessed over optimization vs. people who aren't. People who would prefer writing "clever well written and commented imperative code" vs. "clear concise functional code". The truth is, you have at least three distinctive groups on the performance spectrum: people who are obsessed, people who treat it as one of the things to prioritize, and people who never do it (and tell you it's never the time to do it). The truth is, a lot of performance problems come from imperative code, and functional doesn't mean slow if you know what you're doing. The truth is, most big performance issues can be solved by not doing stupid shit and taking an occasional look at the resource usage. The former requires a little knowledge of how computers and your tools work. The latter requires care about end users, which seems to be in short supply.
- kyleperik 8y ago
  I'm not sure quite what you're getting at. I actually agree with you, I'm one of those who does not like imperative code. I think it's completely counterintuitive. I was making an effort to be unbias, by making clear the "good attributes" of each side. I wasn't at all trying to make that harsh of a distiction. In fact I was trying to point out the ridiculousness of it. What I was trying to point out with irony, I should have said clearly what my opinion is: If you're too concerned with speed, and you optimize early, I think your code style is less than ideal. Essentially your code is messed up to the point that it's too difficult to go back to make optimizations if necessary. I think the reason functional programmer's don't talk about optimization as much is because they don't need to. It's a completely different paradigm. So much like politics, if you only listen to one side, you're going to get messed up ideas of the way the world works. I hope this offers a better explanation

TeMPOraL 8y ago

I find your comment to be much like politics here. Presenting a false dichotomy. People who are obsessed over optimization vs. people who aren't. People who would prefer writing "clever well written and commented imperative code" vs. "clear concise functional code". The truth is, you have at least three distinctive groups on the performance spectrum: people who are obsessed, people who treat it as one of the things to prioritize, and people who never do it (and tell you it's never the time to do it). The truth is, a lot of performance problems come from imperative code, and functional doesn't mean slow if you know what you're doing. The truth is, most big performance issues can be solved by not doing stupid shit and taking an occasional look at the resource usage. The former requires a little knowledge of how computers and your tools work. The latter requires care about end users, which seems to be in short supply.

kyleperik 8y ago
I'm not sure quite what you're getting at. I actually agree with you, I'm one of those who does not like imperative code. I think it's completely counterintuitive. I was making an effort to be unbias, by making clear the "good attributes" of each side. I wasn't at all trying to make that harsh of a distiction. In fact I was trying to point out the ridiculousness of it. What I was trying to point out with irony, I should have said clearly what my opinion is: If you're too concerned with speed, and you optimize early, I think your code style is less than ideal. Essentially your code is messed up to the point that it's too difficult to go back to make optimizations if necessary. I think the reason functional programmer's don't talk about optimization as much is because they don't need to. It's a completely different paradigm. So much like politics, if you only listen to one side, you're going to get messed up ideas of the way the world works. I hope this offers a better explanation