From: David Starner (prosfilaes@gmail.com)
Date: Mon Feb 23 2009 - 05:56:40 CST
On Mon, Feb 23, 2009 at 1:46 AM, Mark Davis <mark@macchiato.com> wrote:
> And that is bad, why? The fact code can be fast-pathed is typically a key
> tool to achieving performance goals.
[...]
> Measuring inputs that match reality is vital for producing high-performance
> code. Let's take an example. In ICU we routinely maximize for BMP
> characters. While someone doing extensive work in cuneiform might be
> somewhat slower, the code is faster for the vast majority of cases. So that
> is the right way to code it.
If and only if it's "somewhat slower" and not "oh my god why has my
computer locked up". Algorithms with awful worst-case scenarios can be
the cause for a very frustrating experience for users who aren't
considered important by the programmer. And if the program is on a
server, no matter how bad and unrealistic the data is, the program
must be capable of processing it in a reasonable amount of time,
because if not, someone will find it amusing to send it to the
program, over and over.
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