Trivial performance questions

[Peter Hansen]

Geoff Gerrietts wrote:
> 
> And maybe the
> right way to respond to optimization questions is "focus on
> algorithms, and learn which built-in constructs use lousy ones". I'm
> not sure, but I find "thinking about optimization before your
> processors melt is premature" to be more than a little disingenuous.

With that I can fully agree.  Any comments I make which might suggest
the latter are merely in reaction to comments about likely unnecessary 
micro-optimizations made by people who don't add the "required" Knuthism
about the root of all evils, etc.

Basically, newbies might be in danger of learning too little about
algorithmic complexity and the effect on performance, but they're
equally in danger of becoming so obsessed with unnecessary performance
gains that it could waste literally years of their fledgling careers.

IMHO :-)

-Peter