7 ms·

Programming

73 points by prakash 17y ago

Pistos2 17y ago
Horribly-chosen HN titles FTL? I'm not even going to click through.
- _pius 17y ago
  That's the original name of the post.
- deleted 17y ago
  [deleted]
- Tuna-Fish 17y ago
  The site name next to the title tells more than the title, and yes, it was worth the read. Only because it was quite short, though.
jgrahamc 17y ago
It's a pity that this has the top slot because it provides no technical information about what optimizations he made and it doesn't have any benchmark information. It's just "Hey, look at me, I'm Linus and I optimized some C code to make it fast". I would much rather see him give us some insight into optimization strategies for different architectures. He appears to know about that, but not share it. Oddly, he was talking about how the Mozilla SHA1 code was faster than OpenSSL back in 2005: http://www.mail-archive.com/git@vger.kernel.org/msg01138.html http://www.mail-archive.com/git@vger.kernel.org/msg01138.htm...
- ghshephard 17y ago
  Think of lightweight articles about SHA1 rewrites in order to pull the requirements of the OpenSSL libraries out of GIT as the HN version of idle gossip. Not every article has to be serious, and of foundational importance. Some sites have pictures of funny animals. This one has Kernel Developer insight into their OCD desires to defeat the compiler from messing up their code...
- pieter 17y ago
  Hmm? Just one click away is this: http://git.kernel.org/?p=git/git.git;a=commitdiff;h=66c9c6c0fbba0894ebce3da572f62eb05162e547 http://git.kernel.org/?p=git/git.git;a=commitdiff;h=66c9c6c0... Provides benchmarks and explanation, and code. What more do you want? Edit. RE: OpenSSL/MozillaSHA speed: He was comparing PowerPC speeds at that time, and is now obviously back on Intel.
- deleted 17y ago
  [deleted]
KC8ZKF 17y ago
So Linus wants to dump libcrypt in git by rolling his own to speed up the test suite by a "couple of seconds?" Good for Linus-- I guess.
- Andys 17y ago
  This provides a valuable insight into Linux culture. There have been many cases where the micro-optimization obsession has displaced effort from the "big picture".
  - jcw 17y ago
    A lot of times, micro-optimizations are more fun. In a hobbyist culture, we tend to do what is most fun.
- old-gregg 17y ago
  He's not rolling out his own libcrypt. He's fixing a bug: i.e. getting rid of the unnecessary dependency on a huge library (OpenSSH) just because of a hashing function. This is systems programming, not a brainless enterprise data pumping: you get rid of unnecessary dependencies if you want to run on cell phones and blade servers at the same time.
  - dkarl 17y ago
    If all he wanted was to dump a dependency, it would have been easier to cut-and-paste a slightly slower implementation from another library. I think he's saying he enjoyed it. The benchmarks are just after-the-fact justification.
access_denied 17y ago
> Did I mention that I seem to have some OCD issues? As an advertising guy I love how L is basically saying: when submitting to reddigg print "Linus Torvalds has problems with OCD".
- Tichy 17y ago
  What are OCD issues anyway? First time I encounter the term.
  - Tuna-Fish 17y ago
    Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OCD http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OCD One of the most common "mild" mental disorders.
- Herring 17y ago
  Can it be used against him? I think it's common knowledge by now that mild OCD is a job requirement.
- biohacker42 17y ago
  As a programming guy I can tell you mild OCD is basically a requirement for programmers.
  - access_denied 17y ago
    I meant my comment as a positive hint to things like this Linus did in the past. Linus always was a good advertiser.
known 17y ago
Our mental abilities start to dwindle at 27 http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/7945569.stm http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/7945569.stm

Programming

73 points by prakash 17y ago

Pistos2 17y ago

Horribly-chosen HN titles FTL? I'm not even going to click through.

_pius 17y ago
That's the original name of the post.
deleted 17y ago
[deleted]
Tuna-Fish 17y ago
The site name next to the title tells more than the title, and yes, it was worth the read. Only because it was quite short, though.

jgrahamc 17y ago

It's a pity that this has the top slot because it provides no technical information about what optimizations he made and it doesn't have any benchmark information. It's just "Hey, look at me, I'm Linus and I optimized some C code to make it fast". I would much rather see him give us some insight into optimization strategies for different architectures. He appears to know about that, but not share it. Oddly, he was talking about how the Mozilla SHA1 code was faster than OpenSSL back in 2005: http://www.mail-archive.com/git@vger.kernel.org/msg01138.html http://www.mail-archive.com/git@vger.kernel.org/msg01138.htm...

ghshephard 17y ago
Think of lightweight articles about SHA1 rewrites in order to pull the requirements of the OpenSSL libraries out of GIT as the HN version of idle gossip. Not every article has to be serious, and of foundational importance. Some sites have pictures of funny animals. This one has Kernel Developer insight into their OCD desires to defeat the compiler from messing up their code...
pieter 17y ago
Hmm? Just one click away is this: http://git.kernel.org/?p=git/git.git;a=commitdiff;h=66c9c6c0fbba0894ebce3da572f62eb05162e547 http://git.kernel.org/?p=git/git.git;a=commitdiff;h=66c9c6c0... Provides benchmarks and explanation, and code. What more do you want? Edit. RE: OpenSSL/MozillaSHA speed: He was comparing PowerPC speeds at that time, and is now obviously back on Intel.
deleted 17y ago
[deleted]

KC8ZKF 17y ago

So Linus wants to dump libcrypt in git by rolling his own to speed up the test suite by a "couple of seconds?" Good for Linus-- I guess.

Andys 17y ago
This provides a valuable insight into Linux culture. There have been many cases where the micro-optimization obsession has displaced effort from the "big picture".
- jcw 17y ago
  A lot of times, micro-optimizations are more fun. In a hobbyist culture, we tend to do what is most fun.
old-gregg 17y ago
He's not rolling out his own libcrypt. He's fixing a bug: i.e. getting rid of the unnecessary dependency on a huge library (OpenSSH) just because of a hashing function. This is systems programming, not a brainless enterprise data pumping: you get rid of unnecessary dependencies if you want to run on cell phones and blade servers at the same time.
- dkarl 17y ago
  If all he wanted was to dump a dependency, it would have been easier to cut-and-paste a slightly slower implementation from another library. I think he's saying he enjoyed it. The benchmarks are just after-the-fact justification.

access_denied 17y ago

> Did I mention that I seem to have some OCD issues? As an advertising guy I love how L is basically saying: when submitting to reddigg print "Linus Torvalds has problems with OCD".

Tichy 17y ago
What are OCD issues anyway? First time I encounter the term.
- Tuna-Fish 17y ago
  Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OCD http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OCD One of the most common "mild" mental disorders.
Herring 17y ago
Can it be used against him? I think it's common knowledge by now that mild OCD is a job requirement.
biohacker42 17y ago
As a programming guy I can tell you mild OCD is basically a requirement for programmers.
- access_denied 17y ago
  I meant my comment as a positive hint to things like this Linus did in the past. Linus always was a good advertiser.

known 17y ago

Our mental abilities start to dwindle at 27 http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/7945569.stm http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/7945569.stm