[Tutor] python, speed, game programming

[Keith Winston]

Hi Danny, no, I don't think there's any disk access, and the memory of the
two machines is rather different: one is 4 Gb or so, the other 9 changing
to 12 any day... but I think I haven't been rigorous enough to justify a
great deal more attention here. I am convinced that I should just keep
developing my next project, and my programming skills, and worry about
speed issues as I hit them. I was overreaching, or anticipating or
something...


On Sat, Jan 4, 2014 at 10:30 PM, Danny Yoo <dyoo at hashcollision.org> wrote:

> There's an assumption in the question here that all programs are CPU bound.
>
> I actually do not think so.  From prior discussion about what the
> program is doing, I got the impression that it was trying to hold
> gigabytes of data in RAM.  Isn't that still true?  If so, then I would
> be very surprised if the program were not thrashing virtual memory.
> Under such conditions, give up on any assumptions about program speed
> being related to CPU speed.  It's hitting disk hard, and that's a Game
> Over.  Under heavy virtual memory swapping conditions, it doesn't
> matter how fast your CPU is: the time that your program is taking is
> due to the physical act of moving spindles and spinning disks of metal
> around.
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-- 
Keith
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