1691: Optimization - Revision history

172.70.142.82: /* References */

2025-05-21T05:48:43Z

‎References

172.70.142.83: /* Explanation */

2025-05-21T05:48:04Z

‎Explanation

FaviFake: added Category:Comics featuring real people using HotCat

2025-05-11T10:11:15Z

added Category:Comics featuring real people using HotCat

FaviFake: Category:Comics featuring Donald Knuth

2025-05-11T09:49:43Z

Category:Comics featuring Donald Knuth

172.71.254.25: Added additional context for the quote "premature optimization is the root of all evil" ("the love of money is the root of all evil") [feel free to edit to make better!]

2023-07-24T19:18:24Z

Added additional context for the quote "premature optimization is the root of all evil" ("the love of money is the root of all evil") [feel free to edit to make better!]

Tsuchinoko: Added category

2022-10-24T19:41:48Z

Added category

Jacky720: rv

2022-05-04T22:36:08Z

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Ex Kay Cee Dee at 22:35, 4 May 2022

2022-05-04T22:35:55Z

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Jacky720: rv

2022-05-04T21:11:00Z

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Ex Kay Cee Dee at 17:27, 4 May 2022

2022-05-04T17:27:57Z

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@@ Line 34: / Line 34: @@
 :[The arrow connects to the final rectangular box.]
 :You are prematurely optimizing
 {{comic discussion}}

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 This comic is a flowchart making fun of the difference between prematurely optimizing and doing things right in the first place: it tells you that if you are using it to decide whether you are optimizing prematurely, then you're optimizing prematurely. The humorous conclusion is that if there is any doubt whether an optimization is ''premature'', then it is ''premature''! Another layer of humor is provided by the minimalism and directness of the flowchart, which suggests that it has itself been (prematurely?) optimized.
-The title text's ''root of all evil'' refers to [[Donald Knuth]]'s paper "Structured Programming with Goto statements" (1974)<ref name="p261-knuth.pdf">Computing Surveys, Vol 6, No 4, December 1974: http://web.archive.org/web/20130731202547/http://pplab.snu.ac.kr/courses/adv_pl05/papers/p261-knuth.pdf</ref> in which he wrote:
+The title text's ''root of all evil'' refers to [[Donald Knuth]]'s paper [http://web.archive.org/web/20130731202547/http://pplab.snu.ac.kr/courses/adv_pl05/papers/p261-knuth.pdf "Structured Programming with Goto statements" (1974)]in which he wrote:
 <blockquote>
 "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%."

← Older revision		Revision as of 10:11, 11 May 2025
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	[[Category:Time management]]		[[Category:Time management]]
	[[Category:Comics featuring Donald Knuth]]		[[Category:Comics featuring Donald Knuth]]
		+	[[Category:Comics featuring real people]]

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 In computing, {{w|program optimization}} is the practice of making a computer program work as quickly as possible, typically by designing it to perform the fewest calculations. "{{w|Premature optimization}}" is the practice of trying to optimize parts of a program before such optimization has been shown to be needed. Optimization can prove to have been a waste of time if parts of the program are later changed or discarded, or if the optimized code is only a small part of the workload. Making a routine 10 times faster doesn't help much if that routine is only consuming 1% of the running time to begin with and it may result in more complicated and buggier code.
-This comic is a flowchart making fun of the difference between prematurely optimizing and doing things right in the first place: it tells you that if you are using it to decide whether you are optimizing prematurely, then you're optimizing prematurely. The humorous conclusion is that if there is any doubt whether an optimization is ''premature'', then it is ''premature''!
+This comic is a flowchart making fun of the difference between prematurely optimizing and doing things right in the first place: it tells you that if you are using it to decide whether you are optimizing prematurely, then you're optimizing prematurely. The humorous conclusion is that if there is any doubt whether an optimization is ''premature'', then it is ''premature''! Another layer of humor is provided by the minimalism and directness of the flowchart, which suggests that it has itself been (prematurely?) optimized.
-Another layer of humor is provided by the minimalism and directness of the flowchart, which suggests that it has itself been (prematurely?) optimized.
+The title text's ''root of all evil'' refers to [[Donald Knuth]]'s paper "Structured Programming with Goto statements" (1974)<ref name="p261-knuth.pdf">Computing Surveys, Vol 6, No 4, December 1974: http://web.archive.org/web/20130731202547/http://pplab.snu.ac.kr/courses/adv_pl05/papers/p261-knuth.pdf</ref> in which he wrote:
 <blockquote>
 "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%."
 </blockquote>
-The title text takes the joke a step further by proposing optimizing a brand new project by introducing a procedure to determine whether a possible optimization is premature - which is obviously a premature optimization. It pokes fun at time-wasting behavior by obsessively perfectionist coders who develop tools to analyze aspects of their software, such as performance. In some fields, such as compilers or database design, such tools can be useful and productive (the 3% mentioned by Knuth?), but the usage suggested here is more appropriately covered by instinct, common sense, and observation of the behavior of the completed program. Knuth's quote itself is a play off of a verse from the Bible, where Paul tells Timothy "[...] the love of money is the root of all evil" (https://biblehub.com/1_timothy/6-10.htm)
+The title text takes the joke a step further by proposing optimizing a brand-new project by introducing a procedure to determine whether a possible optimization is premature - which is obviously a premature optimization. It pokes fun at time-wasting behavior by obsessively perfectionist coders who develop tools to analyze aspects of their software, such as performance. In some fields, such as compilers or database design, such tools can be useful and productive (the 3% mentioned by Knuth?), but the usage suggested here is more appropriately covered by instinct, common sense, and observation of the behavior of the completed program. Knuth's quote itself is a play off of a verse from the Bible, where Paul tells Timothy "[...] the love of money is the root of all evil" (https://biblehub.com/1_timothy/6-10.htm)
 The title text may also be poking fun at the comic, since the comic itself may be the "system" used to determine premature optimization.
@@ Line 38: / Line 36: @@
 ==References==
-<references />
+{{reflist}}
 {{comic discussion}}
 [[Category:Flowcharts]]
 [[Category:Time management]]

@@ Line 18: / Line 18: @@
 "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%."
 </blockquote>
-The title text takes the joke a step further by proposing optimizing a brand new project by introducing a procedure to determine whether a possible optimization is premature - which is obviously a premature optimization. It pokes fun at time-wasting behavior by obsessively perfectionist coders who develop tools to analyze aspects of their software, such as performance. In some fields, such as compilers or database design, such tools can be useful and productive (the 3% mentioned by Knuth?), but the usage suggested here is more appropriately covered by instinct, common sense, and observation of the behavior of the completed program.
+The title text takes the joke a step further by proposing optimizing a brand new project by introducing a procedure to determine whether a possible optimization is premature - which is obviously a premature optimization. It pokes fun at time-wasting behavior by obsessively perfectionist coders who develop tools to analyze aspects of their software, such as performance. In some fields, such as compilers or database design, such tools can be useful and productive (the 3% mentioned by Knuth?), but the usage suggested here is more appropriately covered by instinct, common sense, and observation of the behavior of the completed program. Knuth's quote itself is a play off of a verse from the Bible, where Paul tells Timothy "[...] the love of money is the root of all evil" (https://biblehub.com/1_timothy/6-10.htm)
 The title text may also be poking fun at the comic, since the comic itself may be the "system" used to determine premature optimization.

← Older revision		Revision as of 19:41, 24 October 2022
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	{{comic discussion}}		{{comic discussion}}
	[[Category:Flowcharts]]		[[Category:Flowcharts]]
		+	[[Category:Time management]]