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Here comes an unpopular nitpick: "... we traced the issue to a 15-year-old Git function with O(N²) complexity and fixed it with an algorithmic change, reducing

Here comes an unpopular nitpick: "... we traced the issue to a 15-year-old Git function with O(N²) complexity and fixed it with an algorithmic change, reducing backup times exponentially." Uh no you didn't. Not possible. At most a polynomial reduction is possible else complexity theory needs a re-write. (OK, yes, k could be doing some heavy lifting here, but I doubt it.) If you are going to quote a maths formula then please don't use "exponetially" to mean "lots". I stopped reading there: I don't want to have to read each word and wonder if they actually meant it, or it's just bad hype.

nayak 1y ago
OP here. Feedback is always welcome, I did mean exponentially in the colloquial sense. I do see how it is confusing here, will change it.
- DamonHD 1y ago
  Thank you. (I don't think that anyone should use "exponentially" that way: it is an art term with a specific and particular meaning, so find another word if you mean something else! Like misusing specific legal or sporting terms...)
  - ctxc 1y ago
    Art term?
    - wizzwizz4 1y ago
      https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/term_of_art https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/term_of_art
      - ctxc 1y ago
        Ah, thanks. I could only think of art as in literal, artistic art.
        kccqzy 1y ago
        If you have that tendency, you just need to think of TAOCP, this industry's best distillation of intellectual achievement, with the word "art" in its name.
  - taftster 1y ago
    Which term is appropriate here? What would you suggest? (honest question)
    - DamonHD 1y ago
      "hugely" or "a lot" or "to O(XXX)" whatever the new XXX complexity is.
      - taftster 1y ago
        "to O(xxx)" is a good idea, in terms of keeping it mathematical and accurate. I like that best. "hugely" makes me giggle, because I really hear "bigly" when I see/hear it.
- serial_dev 1y ago
  You can’t use exponentially in the colloquial sense in a post about software performance. If my barista says that his new coffee is exponentially better, it’s ok to use it colloquially. If my git hosting provider writes about an impactful performance improvement, it’s not.
- DamonHD 1y ago
  I'm disappointed that the page has not been fixed...
bombela 1y ago
I can forgive exponential as a figure of speech. You missed when they describe using a map for the side effect of [key] dedupliction. Instead of saying "set". The code itself uses the type "strset".

nayak 1y ago

OP here. Feedback is always welcome, I did mean exponentially in the colloquial sense. I do see how it is confusing here, will change it.

DamonHD 1y ago
Thank you. (I don't think that anyone should use "exponentially" that way: it is an art term with a specific and particular meaning, so find another word if you mean something else! Like misusing specific legal or sporting terms...)
- ctxc 1y ago
  Art term?
  - wizzwizz4 1y ago
    https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/term_of_art https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/term_of_art
    - ctxc 1y ago
      Ah, thanks. I could only think of art as in literal, artistic art.
      - kccqzy 1y ago
        If you have that tendency, you just need to think of TAOCP, this industry's best distillation of intellectual achievement, with the word "art" in its name.
- taftster 1y ago
  Which term is appropriate here? What would you suggest? (honest question)
  - DamonHD 1y ago
    "hugely" or "a lot" or "to O(XXX)" whatever the new XXX complexity is.
    - taftster 1y ago
      "to O(xxx)" is a good idea, in terms of keeping it mathematical and accurate. I like that best. "hugely" makes me giggle, because I really hear "bigly" when I see/hear it.
serial_dev 1y ago
You can’t use exponentially in the colloquial sense in a post about software performance. If my barista says that his new coffee is exponentially better, it’s ok to use it colloquially. If my git hosting provider writes about an impactful performance improvement, it’s not.
DamonHD 1y ago
I'm disappointed that the page has not been fixed...

bombela 1y ago

I can forgive exponential as a figure of speech. You missed when they describe using a map for the side effect of [key] dedupliction. Instead of saying "set". The code itself uses the type "strset".