Re^2: fast way to split and sum an input file

If this is a program that will be executed repeatedly. I most likely will go with "15 minutes + 1 second".

If the performance is important in this case, everybody should be happy to let the guy go with c, as that's the right thing to do.

On the other hand, my personal experience tells me that Perl is in general a language with speed. Don't be afraid to declare that even with this incident.

Comment on Re^2: fast way to split and sum an input file

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Re^3: fast way to split and sum an input file by QM (Parson) on Aug 29, 2005 at 22:01 UTC
For me, performance has to be really important, such as a program that will be running hundreds of times per day. Or for a server, where a small increase in performance means fewer total systems to buy and maintain. The difference between 1 second and 1 minute in the daily grind isn't much at all. Especially considering how long I spend just waiting for some applications to start up in the first place. If the process "multiplier" is only 1 (me, once a day), 1 minute is just long enough for a trip to the soda machine, so I won't mind. Depending on the C compiler, updates can take 10 minutes (compile, link, fix stupid bugs, repeat) compared to Perl. I once had a class project to write 1/3 of a trading system (along with my 2 teammates, who wrote the other 2/3). They used C, I used Perl. One of them implemented the interface wrong, so our project didn't work. We had 20 minutes to deadline, and he was going to need 2 hours to find the bug and fix it. Instead, I changed my Perl version to handle his mistake, and we turned it in 5 minutes after we discovered the problem (including testing). Speed of execution is rarely a requirement. -QM -- Quantum Mechanics: The dreams stuff is made of	[reply]

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Re^3: fast way to split and sum an input file
by QM (Parson) on Aug 29, 2005 at 22:01 UTC

really

The difference between 1 second and 1 minute in the daily grind isn't much at all. Especially considering how long I spend just waiting for some applications to start up in the first place.

If the process "multiplier" is only 1 (me, once a day), 1 minute is just long enough for a trip to the soda machine, so I won't mind.

Depending on the C compiler, updates can take 10 minutes (compile, link, fix stupid bugs, repeat) compared to Perl.

I once had a class project to write 1/3 of a trading system (along with my 2 teammates, who wrote the other 2/3). They used C, I used Perl. One of them implemented the interface wrong, so our project didn't work. We had 20 minutes to deadline, and he was going to need 2 hours to find the bug and fix it. Instead, I changed my Perl version to handle his mistake, and we turned it in 5 minutes after we discovered the problem (including testing).

Speed of execution is rarely a requirement.

-QM
--
Quantum Mechanics: The dreams stuff is made of

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