Don’t Optimize Prematurely¶
As Donald Knuth [quoting Hoare] said:
“Premature optimization is the root of all evil.”
Premature optimization is:
making designs/code more complex (and less readable) than it needs to be
when the effort is not justified by proven performance need
adds no value
Always remember, “it is far, far easier to make a correct program fast than it is to make a fast program correct.”
So when writing code:
Focus on readability and correctness.
Measure whether optimization is needed.
Only if justified, add optimization.
Also remember that the compiler is good at basic optimizations and can do them for you. Do not sacrifice readability for something the compiler can do.
