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I can't say I stick to this 100%, but I actually like using underpowered laptops. Optimisation is an important step in the development process but its often rus

I can't say I stick to this 100%, but I actually like using underpowered laptops. Optimisation is an important step in the development process but its often rushed through even by those who consider it most important (myself included). However, if you NEED to optimise your code just to get the thing to work on your computer, a lot more attention is put into it. If I'm optimising for a lower spec machine than my users are likely to have, that gives me plenty of leg room. For the record, I'm mostly talking about personal projects, which are game dev, where performance is more of a factor than something like a web app.

viraptor 3y ago
You can easily underpower your better laptop on demand for a specific task. And also you can do it in more controlled ways: what happens if the process gets less memory, fewer cores, lower cpu speed, worse network, etc. Getting an underpowered laptop to do both development and testing is not the only, or even best way to do this.
- kelnos 3y ago
  To expand on that, one of the main reasons I upgrade my laptop is to make development tasks better: faster compilation times, and less sluggishness when I need to work in bloated IDEs like IntelliJ. Sure, that may put me a bit out of touch computing-power-wise from many of my users, but, as you point out, there are ways to compensate for that.
- bodge5000 3y ago
  You can, but you won't. Not regularly anyway, thats not the way you'll run your computer daily. Maybe for a while, but then you'll forget or want the extra power for something and get too used to it. Instead, you'll do it occasionally at specific times. You've just recreated the problems I was talking about with an optimisation step but in a new environment.
  - viraptor 3y ago
    You can be more specific. Don't lower the performance globally, just for the app you're developing. It's easy to automate in your ide configuration / run script / app itself when running in debug mode, etc. It's a one-off setup per project you're developing.

viraptor 3y ago

You can easily underpower your better laptop on demand for a specific task. And also you can do it in more controlled ways: what happens if the process gets less memory, fewer cores, lower cpu speed, worse network, etc. Getting an underpowered laptop to do both development and testing is not the only, or even best way to do this.

kelnos 3y ago
To expand on that, one of the main reasons I upgrade my laptop is to make development tasks better: faster compilation times, and less sluggishness when I need to work in bloated IDEs like IntelliJ. Sure, that may put me a bit out of touch computing-power-wise from many of my users, but, as you point out, there are ways to compensate for that.
bodge5000 3y ago
You can, but you won't. Not regularly anyway, thats not the way you'll run your computer daily. Maybe for a while, but then you'll forget or want the extra power for something and get too used to it. Instead, you'll do it occasionally at specific times. You've just recreated the problems I was talking about with an optimisation step but in a new environment.
- viraptor 3y ago
  You can be more specific. Don't lower the performance globally, just for the app you're developing. It's easy to automate in your ide configuration / run script / app itself when running in debug mode, etc. It's a one-off setup per project you're developing.