Re: [tlug] CentOS to Gentoo-Pros/Cons(if any)?

[Josh Glover <jmglov@example.com>]

On 13/12/05, Stephen J. Turnbull <stephen@example.com> wrote:

> Yer borderline me hearty!  What gets me is not that somebody generally
> clueful doesn't know the right incantation,

That is what manpages are for. I am an astoundingly inept coder
without me manpages (or Harbison and Steele's "C: A Reference Manual".
:)

> but the fact that this isn't the first thing taught to every hacker these days.
[...]
> Professor Knuth sez, "premature optimization is the root of all
> error."  :-)

And that is a great reason for it to be excluded from every hacker's
education, at least early on.

To offer some proof of what I am saying, I have been coding since I
was eight, but University was my first introduction to formal computer
science. When I first learned the basic data structures, what I did
was implement each one of them myself, in C++. Great, so far--I think
every hacker *should* be able to do this, as it teaches you very well
which data structures to use when, if you know them so intimately. The
problem was, I went on to make different copies of these data
structure classes for each type in C++. D'oh! That is what templates
are for.

So picture the sad state of affairs if someone had shown me the -O
options to gcc! I would have cranked the optimisations through the
roof and wondered why my code didn't work, mysteriously. :)

I know how to use optimisations now, of course, and do so when the
situation calls for it. I have never needed to optimise for space,
however, which is why I did not remember the appropriate flag.

Remember, all of my professional systems programming was done for a
telecom services company, where we were more than happy to trade size
(both on disk and in memory) for execution speed every time. Working
with real-time and time-sensitive telephone protocols will do that to
you. :)

Cheers,
Josh