On 10/22/06, Ivan Gyurdiev ivg231@gmail.com wrote:
Constant is convenient, but if it can't meet all necessary requirements, I wouldn't hesitate to drop the idea - never compromise on design in favor of C optimizations. Tomorrow's hardware will make any non-algorithmic optimizations irrelevant.
While this is true for most things, it shouldn't be applied in all cases. For things like graphics processing, I would say every bit of optimization is worth it, even at the expense of a little design flexibility.
Keep in mind that having everyone in the world constantly upgrading their hardware because of attitudes like this is not sustainable -- a far better future would be where a standard computer is cheaper, needs less power, produces less noise and heat, and just does its job.
n0dalus.