pairs from a list

[Paddy]

On 23 Jan, 22:39, George Sakkis <george.sak... at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Jan 23, 4:48 pm, Steven D'Aprano <st... at REMOVE-THIS-
>
> cybersource.com.au> wrote:
> > As for your other points, I think we're actually very much in agreement,
> > except for your tolerance of random posters asking what I believe is an
> > incoherent question: "what's the fastest way to do ...?". It seems to me
> > you're willing to give them the benefit of the doubt that they've done
> > their profiling and considered their trade-offs, or at the very worst are
> > asking from purely intellectual curiosity.
>
> It depends on the specific problem and the context. For small well-
> defined algorithmic type problems, I just assume it's intellectual
> curiosity or that performance really matters. If the same question was
> asked in the context of, say, a typical web application fetching data
> from a database and rendering dynamic pages, I might have dismissed it
> as YAGNI.
>
> George

George, I tend to think that the more context an OP gives, the more
thought they have given their problem. Often, to get a better answer
you need to help the OP divulge context.

I too like the intellectual challenge of exploring small problem, and
from lurking on c.l.p I thought there would be lots of answers of that
ilk, but this time I thought why not contribute in a different way?

Reading c.l.p I am often reminded of good software practice memes in
answers and think its part of what makes c.l.p. a rewarding
experience. It may be hubris to think that a random reader might read
my post and then follow my points before making a routine faster; but
there you go :-)

- Paddy.