Re: [gentoo-dev] Portage QOS

[Tom Wijsman]

On Fri, 10 Jan 2014 09:02:46 -0500
Rich Freeman <rich0@g.o> wrote:

> On Fri, Jan 10, 2014 at 8:10 AM, Igor <lanthruster@×××××.com> wrote:
> If I ask somebody who knows nothing about algorithms to sort a list in
> Python they're going to use foo.sort().  If I ask somebody who knows
> nothing about algorithms to sort a list in C they're going to write a
> bubble sort, and it will be WAY slower for anything more than a dozen
> elements.

This assumes that the person doesn't do it manually in Python and
doesn't make use of already implemented functionality (eg. qsort) in C,
which jumps out as the first Google result; generalizations like these
are subjective, because it's just your view and thoughts of reality.

> Honestly, you're writing as if you're talking to a bunch of people who
> don't know anything about how computers work, and the reality is that
> you'll be hard-pressed to find an audience more familiar with
> compilers/toolchains/linkers/etc just about anywhere.

Indeed, a lot of us are CompSci students have that algorithmic
complexity drilled in since the first year. If we need performance,
we'll put it to great use; an occasional prototype, not so much.

> If you have the right algorithm nobody is arguing that it will run
> faster if compiled from correctly-written C.  The problem is that
> right now we don't have the right algorithm, and we're likely to get a
> lot further with fixing that faster in a language like python than in
> C.

Actually, language doesn't even matter here; just push that power off
button 'n get back to paper, then fix it in even faster pseudo code. :)

(Well, unless you type pseudo code faster than you write it down ... :P)

-- 
With kind regards,

Tom Wijsman (TomWij)
Gentoo Developer

E-mail address  : TomWij@g.o
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