3 ms·
The world isn't as black and white as "all abstractions bad" or "all abstractions good" though. There are levels of abstraction that are objectively useful and
by AnIdiotOnTheNet 5y ago
The world isn't as black and white as "all abstractions bad" or "all abstractions good" though. There are levels of abstraction that are objectively useful and levels of abstraction that are so separated from reality that a 3Ghz multicore computer is somehow incapable of keeping up with a human's typed input.
- fwip 5y agoAnd the level of abstraction that is "good" changes over time and by use case. At my day job, I write both high-performance bioinformatics software and good-enough-performance web software. I do need to look at the assembly & think about the internals of the CPU when I'm trying to push through billions of reads in a timely manner. But I don't need to count cycles when I'm rendering a CRUD detail page in Django - I just need to make sure my database queries are reasonable. Also, the idea that you can say some abstractions (presumably in wide use) are "objectively" bad only makes sense if you've already applied your subjective criteria.
- AnIdiotOnTheNet 5y agoLike I said, I think it is pretty objectively bad if a 3Ghz computer can't keep up with basic user input. I don't think that's a crazy high bar.