From: Stephen Waits <steve@...>
Date: 2006-03-12T02:00:04+09:00
Subject: Re: Help me understand why the Ruby block is slower than wit


On Mar 11, 2006, at 8:47 AM, James Edward Gray II wrote:

>>> This sounds like premature optimization.  Remember, you start
>>> worrying about speed when the code gets too slow.  Not before.
>>
>> I'm going to have to respectfully disagree.
>
> Well, I'm pretty darn sure you are in the minority on that one:  ;)

Well, in this case, being in the majority doesn't necessarily make  
you right.  Like many things, I think we've got several shades of  
gray here.. err... Gray?  :)  I'm all for not prematurely  
optimizing.  But in this case, Alan is attempting to better  
understand Ruby's inner-workings which is a perfectly fine example of  
playing with performance.

Additionally, the "no premature optimization ideal" is often taken a  
little too far.  I intentionally call it an "ideal".  I work on video  
games.  A good portion of our job is optimization.  If we didn't do  
*some* premature optimization, we'd be in bad shape.

--Steve