To create a "Content-Size:" header, yes, I can see the benefits of determining the length of a string. Or, might it not be better for CGI to tell you how big your page is?

As for optimizing Perl ... Yes, Perl should be optimized. In fact, a large part of my jobs tend to be cleaning up de-optimized Perl code. However, I assume that the interpreter will optimize things like the size of the scalar for me. I don't worry about implementation details - I worry about optimizing my algorithms first!

As for wondering how big the fine details are ... yeah, it's cool to know. Then, it's important to forget. I think it's more important to know that a hash takes more memory than an array or a closure. So, if you want to optimize, optimize using standard knowledge. Don't start optimizing on the byte level.

That is what my intention was to say. If you're at the point where every other thing is optimized, optimize your choice of language to something that allows you to easily deal with that ... like ASM.

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We are the carpenters and bricklayers of the Information Age.

Don't go borrowing trouble. For programmers, this means Worry only about what you need to implement.

In reply to Optimize algorithms before byte level details by dragonchild
in thread Measurement of physical memory by Anonymous Monk

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