[computer-go] Re: language choices

[Don Dailey]

On Mon, 2006-12-04 at 12:15 -0800, Dave Dyer wrote:
> Guys, keep your eyes on the prize.  If your only problem
> is that you need to double your speed, all you have to do
> is wait 1.5 years.
> 
> All this talk of optimizing speed by tweaking language xx to be
> more like assembly language (or C) is almost completely a waste 
> of time.
> 
> Likewise, algoritmic optimizations that are not order of magnitude
> improvements (factors of 10 or 100) are not worth persuing.

I agree with most of this - if you're not programming in C or assembly
you shouldn't be looking for minor improvements if it impacts the
clarity of the code.   

Even if you program in C you shouldn't unless speed really matters.
Presumably, you wouldn't be programming in C period unless speed did
matter to you.

But as a chess programmer,  I disagree with your statement about orders
of magnitude.  If your chess program is 30% faster than mine, all else
being equal,  you have a measurably stronger chess program and you will
probably win even a fairly short match.   In a highly competitive chess
tournament where many programs have a realistic chance of winning, a 30
or 40 percent difference is to die for.

If your program has an annoying 0.75 second delay,  even getting this
down a little is a big deal.  

Even if I were a Java programmer, I would go for as little as a 2 to 1
speed increase even if it uglied up my code a little.   But I wouldn't
obsess over 20 percent and I wouldn't reorganize the code for that.

- Don



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