https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/api.php?action=feedcontributions&feedformat=atom&user=AbinoamJrexplain xkcd - User contributions [en]2026-04-29T21:26:40ZUser contributionsMediaWiki 1.30.0https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=1691:_Optimization&diff=1215431691: Optimization2016-06-08T06:38:07Z<p>AbinoamJr: /* Explanation */</p>
<hr />
<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 1691<br />
| date = June 8, 2016<br />
| title = Optimization<br />
| image = optimization.png<br />
| titletext = Premature optimization is the root of all evil, so to start this project I'd better come up with a system that can determine whether a possible optimization is premature or not.<br />
}}<br />
<br />
==Explanation==<br />
{{incomplete|Created by a BOT - Please change this comment when editing this page.}}<br />
Donald Knuth in his paper "Structured Programming with Goto statements" said:<br />
<blockquote><br />
"There is no doubt that the grail of efficiency leads to abuse. Programmers waste enormous amounts of time thinking about, or worrying about, the speed of noncritical parts of their programs, and these attempts at efficiency actually have a strong negative impact when debugging and maintenance are considered. We should forget about small efficiencies, say about 97% of the time: '''premature optimization is the root of all evil'''. Yet we should not pass up our opportunities in that critical 3%."<br />
</blockquote><br />
<br />
Source: http://web.archive.org/web/20130731202547/http://pplab.snu.ac.kr/courses/adv_pl05/papers/p261-knuth.pdf (Computing Surveys, Vol 6, No 4, December 1974)<br />
<br />
==Transcript==<br />
{{incomplete transcript}}<br />
<br />
{{comic discussion}}</div>AbinoamJrhttps://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=1691:_Optimization&diff=1215421691: Optimization2016-06-08T06:34:49Z<p>AbinoamJr: /* Explanation */</p>
<hr />
<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 1691<br />
| date = June 8, 2016<br />
| title = Optimization<br />
| image = optimization.png<br />
| titletext = Premature optimization is the root of all evil, so to start this project I'd better come up with a system that can determine whether a possible optimization is premature or not.<br />
}}<br />
<br />
==Explanation==<br />
{{incomplete|Created by a BOT - Please change this comment when editing this page.}}<br />
Donald Knuth in his paper "Structured Programming with Goto statements" said:<br />
<blockquote><br />
"There is no doubt that the grail of efficiency leads to abuse. Programmers waste enormous amounts of time thinking about, or worrying about, the speed of noncritical parts of their programs, and these attempts at efficiency actually have a strong negative impact when debugging and maintenance are considered. We should forget about small efficiencies, say about 97% of the time: premature optimization is the root of all evil. Yet we should not pass up our opportunities in that critical 3%."<br />
</blockquote><br />
<br />
Source: http://web.archive.org/web/20130731202547/http://pplab.snu.ac.kr/courses/adv_pl05/papers/p261-knuth.pdf (Computing Surveys, Vol 6, No 4, December 1974)<br />
<br />
==Transcript==<br />
{{incomplete transcript}}<br />
<br />
{{comic discussion}}</div>AbinoamJr