Comments on: When Speed Matters http://www.deskchecked.com/2008/04/03/when-speed-matters/ Thomas Lee's programming blog Sat, 27 Mar 2010 16:01:14 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 By: Be Lazy: Automate Everything | Shine Technologies Blog http://www.deskchecked.com/2008/04/03/when-speed-matters/comment-page-1/#comment-1442 Be Lazy: Automate Everything | Shine Technologies Blog Tue, 05 Aug 2008 16:57:42 +0000 http://www.vector-seven.com/2008/04/03/when-speed-matters/#comment-1442 [...] By the same token, if your program needs low-level access to hardware or raw speed for processing large quantities of data — don’t be afraid to fall back to a language like C or Java if you’re sure of your reasons for doing so. Needless to say, situations such as this are rare but not impossible. [...] [...] By the same token, if your program needs low-level access to hardware or raw speed for processing large quantities of data — don’t be afraid to fall back to a language like C or Java if you’re sure of your reasons for doing so. Needless to say, situations such as this are rare but not impossible. [...]

]]> By: Stephan Sokolow http://www.deskchecked.com/2008/04/03/when-speed-matters/comment-page-1/#comment-1298 Stephan Sokolow Fri, 06 Jun 2008 11:47:51 +0000 http://www.vector-seven.com/2008/04/03/when-speed-matters/#comment-1298 Makes me wonder how long a script in Python, Ruby, or Perl would take. I avoid bash scripting for anything time-sensitive because the time it takes to fork commands like chmod quickly adds up and, by OS standards, creating new processes is not a lightweight operation on UNIX-like OSes. Makes me wonder how long a script in Python, Ruby, or Perl would take. I avoid bash scripting for anything time-sensitive because the time it takes to fork commands like chmod quickly adds up and, by OS standards, creating new processes is not a lightweight operation on UNIX-like OSes.

]]> By: tom http://www.deskchecked.com/2008/04/03/when-speed-matters/comment-page-1/#comment-1035 tom Sun, 06 Apr 2008 12:55:11 +0000 http://www.vector-seven.com/2008/04/03/when-speed-matters/#comment-1035 Absolutely right, OJ: that one minute wait was the bottleneck to the task I was trying to accomplish. Although one minute isn't a long time it *feels* like an eternity when you're sitting there waiting for it to finish. And unfortunately, it had to be run as part of a series of steps - it was step 2 of 3. Dead bang in the middle, slowing me down to a crawl on every iteration. *sniff* Absolutely right, OJ: that one minute wait was the bottleneck to the task I was trying to accomplish. Although one minute isn’t a long time it *feels* like an eternity when you’re sitting there waiting for it to finish. And unfortunately, it had to be run as part of a series of steps – it was step 2 of 3. Dead bang in the middle, slowing me down to a crawl on every iteration. *sniff*

]]> By: OJ http://www.deskchecked.com/2008/04/03/when-speed-matters/comment-page-1/#comment-1028 OJ Thu, 03 Apr 2008 22:26:44 +0000 http://www.vector-seven.com/2008/04/03/when-speed-matters/#comment-1028 I think a key point to clarify is whether the script was a blocker for you or not. If it was a blocker, then there's no doubt you took the right approach and looked to optimise it a bit. If it wasn't a blocker, and you can run the script behind the scenes, then it becomes moot. If you fire and forget, then there's no huge deal between the two. Of course, being a bit of a performance nut, I give you kudos for what you did :) But in the "real" world, if it doesn't slow you down by preventing you from doing anything then it's no biggie. When are you writing the ASM version? :) I think a key point to clarify is whether the script was a blocker for you or not. If it was a blocker, then there’s no doubt you took the right approach and looked to optimise it a bit.

If it wasn’t a blocker, and you can run the script behind the scenes, then it becomes moot. If you fire and forget, then there’s no huge deal between the two.

Of course, being a bit of a performance nut, I give you kudos for what you did :) But in the “real” world, if it doesn’t slow you down by preventing you from doing anything then it’s no biggie.

When are you writing the ASM version? :)

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