Community Comment: Part 35 - Despite naysayers, benchmarking can be valuable
- Don't repeat a quote before assessing it
- Galanakis incorrect about unexecuted code
- Execution required for relative performance
- Benchmarking valuable despite naysayers
The comments I provided in reaction to a community discussion thread.
Chief Challenge Writer at Coding Challenges:
Some advice just never gets old.
“Controlling complexity is the essence of computer programming.”
— Brian Kernighan
This was true 40 years ago, and it’s still true today.
Owner & Programmer at Lisp Development Firm:
Destroying complexity, in turn, is the essence of controlling complexity. 🙂
Software Engineer at AI Firm:
Jeff Atwood: “the best code is no code at all. Every new line of code you willingly bring into the world is code that has to be debugged, code that has to be read and understood, code that has to be supported. Every time you write new code, you should do so reluctantly, under duress, because you completely exhausted all your other options.”
Robert Galanakis: “The fastest code is the code which does not run. The code easiest to maintain is the code that was never written.”
.NET Developer at UK Based Home Ownership Firm:
[Software Engineer at AI Firm] Yeh very clever but it won't do very much!
Software Engineer at AI Firm:
Well, sometimes not doing very much is exactly the right thing to do! 🙂
Gfesser:
The first sentence of the second quote here isn't logical. Code which doesn't execute actually isn't the fastest: relative speed doesn't exist with respect to execution because it's simply not applicable. Contrast this statement with the second sentence here, which doesn't assume that the code was actually written.
Software Engineer at AI Firm:
I'm going to answer you in kind: technically, relative speed doesn't objectively exist at all except as a mental fabrication 😄
Gfesser:
I'm sure this sentiment is common amongst some professionals who dismiss benchmarking. 😀