a style question

[Michael Meissner]

In article <537 at mtndew.Tustin.CA.US> friedl at mtndew.Tustin.CA.US (Steve
Friedl) writes:

| In article <4762 at navy8.UUCP>, kreidler at motcid.UUCP (Joe Kreidler) writes:
| > 
| > As software systems keep getting larger and more complex, it is
| > important to develop code that is easy to understand and can be ported
| > to new applications. This comes at the cost of less efficient code
| > (when compared to assembler).
| 
| This is seductive but true only superficially.
| 
| Q: Given two equally-talented teams of programmers, one using C and
|    one using assembler, which team will produce the system with best
|    execution time for a non-trivial program?
| 
| A: The team writing in C.  While the assembler folks are busy optimizing
|    that inner loop, the C people are testing three different algorithms
|    to see which one is *really* faster.

Or even:

A: The team writing in C has already produced two or three revisions,
   changing the code so that it gives the customer what s/he wants,
   instead of what s/he asked for.

Also a possibility:

A: The team writing in C, since the team writing in C has switched to
   a new hardware platform that is not upwards compatible with the
   previous platform, but it twice as fast....
--
Michael Meissner	email: meissner at osf.org		phone: 617-621-8861
Open Software Foundation, 11 Cambridge Center, Cambridge, MA, 02142

Do apple growers tell their kids money doesn't grow on bushes?