Date: Sat, 6 Mar 2004 14:17:42 -0800 From: Chris Pressey <cpressey@catseye.mine.nu> To: Colin Percival <colin.percival@wadham.ox.ac.uk> Cc: freebsd-chat@freebsd.org Subject: Re: FreeBSD Most wanted Message-ID: <20040306141742.4f41ba27.cpressey@catseye.mine.nu> In-Reply-To: <6.0.1.1.1.20040306214526.08c5ed70@imap.sfu.ca> References: <Pine.LNX.4.43.0403011839470.3269-100000@pilchuck.reedmedia.net> <EABDE846-6EF2-11D8-AE09-000A95DA58FE@jimz.net> <20040306005744.T38020@haldjas.folklore.ee> <20040305153505.74061868.cpressey@catseye.mine.nu> <20040306013914.D38020@haldjas.folklore.ee> <404A465A.1040009@stephanmantler.com> <6.0.1.1.1.20040306214526.08c5ed70@imap.sfu.ca>
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On Sat, 06 Mar 2004 21:53:51 +0000 Colin Percival <colin.percival@wadham.ox.ac.uk> wrote: > At 21:44 06/03/2004, stephan mantler wrote: > >Also, to get a bit closer to the original topic. I can't remember > >where I > >read this (DDJ probably), but apparently programmers who have a deep > >understanding of computer architecture through low level programming > >also produce "better" code in high level languages. My interpretation > >is that they are simply feeding the compiler a better foundation to > >work with. > > Having seen quite a lot of undergraduate "computer science" students > over past decade, I can certainly support that interpretation. Nobody > quite understands why hash tables are not a perfect data structure > until they've tried to implement one in assembly language. (And, > after performing such a task, few people will use hash tables without > asking themselves, at least for a moment, if there might be a cheaper > solution to the problem at hand.) > > Colin Percival Not sure what you mean here... surely it's no easier to implement (say) an AVL tree or a red-black tree in assembly? In fact, I'd think a hash function would often be a good candidate for hand-coded assembly - if you want to play "Beat the Compiler" :) -Chris
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