3 ms·

No, I think it is just a joke: if you parse "*2" as "times two" you could optimize it in code by shifting the bits left since bit shifting operations are cheape

by aerique 13y ago

No, I think it is just a joke: if you parse "*2" as "times two" you could optimize it in code by shifting the bits left since bit shifting operations are cheaper than multiplication. #b0001 = 1 #b0010 = 2 #b0100 = 4 #b1000 = 8

masnick 13y ago
Haha thanks for the explanation.
- delinka 13y ago
  And to continue on this tangent, if your code is multiplying by the constant 2 (e.g. "x = z * 2") the compiler's probably going to optimize that into a shift anyway, so just keep the "* 2" to keep future human readers of the code happy.