[Tutor] Over optimizing

[Mike Hansen]

[steps up on soapbox]

Lately there's been a lot of talk about getting various code snippets to 
run faster. It's good to exercise your brain coming up with better ways 
to optimize code and get exposed to different methods of writing code. I 
would like to offer a little bit of caution for those new to 
programming. Many programs run into problems when the the programmer is 
overly concerned with optimizing. Sometimes inadvertently sacrificing 
stability and readability in the name of optimization. Sometimes the 
clever optimization becomes difficult to read and possibly difficult to 
modify. In general, you should worry about optimizing code only when it 
appears to be running too slow. Don't try to second guess the program's 
performance. Machines are pretty fast these days, and are getting 
faster. In short, get it working, make sure it's readable, and optimize 
only if it's performing too slow.

Just an opinion based on some books I've read and some experience.

Thanks

[steps off soapbox]

Mike