A note for those not consumed by efficiency worries

[Mike Harrison]

In article <1990Mar22.072712.10902 at diku.dk> jensting at skinfaxe.diku.dk (Jens Tingleff) writes:
>sullivan at aqdata.uucp (Michael T. Sullivan) writes:
> ...
>Quite right. I always repeat to myself, whenever I'm urged to do an
>unmotivated source code ``optimisation'', 
>
>	MAKE THE THING WORK, THEN MAKE IT FAST.
>
The formulation of this rule that I always use is:

"It is easier to make a correct, slow program run fast than to make a fast,
wrong program run right".


On the subject of rules, I once saw this one in a book:

  "The first law of system design : 

       Never check for an error condition that you don't know how to handle!"

This sounds like the fruit of bitter experience.

Mike,


Michael P. Harrison - Software Group - Inmos Ltd. UK.
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