How about a flamewar on this topic in honor of Erik?
* chu...@best.com (Chuck Fry)
| Modern Common Lisp compilers allow me to tune the critical parts of my
| code to within a few percent of C code, but without the pain of using a
| fragile, brittle quasi-portable assembly language.
just for the heck of it: I have tuned a _very_ CPU-heavy function I wrote
in Common Lisp over a year ago so it went from the unsatisfactory 623 µs
per call to the very pleasant 4.7 µs per call.
the strictly equivalent C function that people are entirely _satisfied_
with, performance-wise, takes 92 µs per call. very frequently, I find
that Common Lisp allows me to experiment with algorithms so much faster
than I can in C and the like, so I can change methodology and approach as
fast as they can do another optimization attempt. this means that a good
Common Lisp programmer can find the optimal algorithm _and_ the optimal
implementation in less time than the C programmer can find the optimal
implementation.
the C mind-set is that C is fast. this is even less true than their idea
that CL is slow. writing really fast C code is _incredibly_ hard, and
you might as well write it in assembly after you have seen what the
compiler is doing to the overall code. I have squeezed the last drop of
blood out of many a CPU in my time, but never has it been easier to do it
than with Allegro CL with its instruction-level profiler, hackable LAP
code (thanks, Duane!), and code transformation with compiler macros (a
standard CL facility). this stuff just isn't available to C programmers.
if you can't outperform C in CL, you're too good at C.
#:Erik
Name:
Anonymous2009-06-21 15:41
>>1
I was surprised when I read this as I had recently been re-reading some of his historic rants. Alas, no more.
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FrozenVoid2009-06-21 16:46
Have YOU ever experienced the joys of a prolapsed anus?
A novice had a problem and could not find a solution. "I know," said the novice, "I'll just use Perl!" The novice now had two problems.
It's like I'm really reading /prog/.
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Anonymous2009-06-22 16:38
>>1
I would rather not.
Any flames would pale in comparison to his work.
His burn with an intensity worthy of stars.
Like Cefeids, they will set the standard for c.l.l. for years to come.