• mnemonicmonkeys@sh.itjust.works
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    1 day ago

    unoptimized code that does complex stuff.

    You can still have complex code that is optimized for performance. You can spend more resources to do more complex computations and still be optimized so long as you’re not wasting processing power on pointless stuff.

    For example, in some of my code I have to get a physics model within 0.001°. I don’t use that step size every loop, because that’d be stupid and wasteful. I start iterating with 1° until it overshoots the target, back off, reduce the step to 1/10, and loop through that logic until I get my result with the desired accuracy.

    • iglou@programming.dev
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      11 hours ago

      Of course! But sometimes, most often even, the optimization is not worth the development to get it. We’re particularly talking about memory optimization here, and it is so cheap (or at least it was… ha) that it is not worth optimizing like we used to 25 years ago. Instead you use higher level languages with garbage collection or equivalents that are easier to maintain with and faster to implement new stuff with. You use algorithms that consume a fuck ton of memory for speed improvements. And as long as it is fast enough, you shouldn’t over optimize.

      Proper optimization these days is more of a hobby.

      Now obviously some fields require a lot more optimization - embedded systems, for instance. Or simulations, which get a lot of value from being optimized as much as possible.