Premature Optimisation

2009-01-16 04:53:22

Often I am told by programmers that you should never optimise your code, or at the very least not optimise it initially. This is rubbish.

Optimisation takes many forms, from efficient algorithm selection and well-written code to profiling your code and speeding up any slow bits.

While actual code optimsation shouldn't be looked at too closely in the early stages of writing the program, any decent programmer worth their salt will be aware of what they are putting into the program and how it will impact run time.

I know the original quote was talking about old school programming in the early years of computing but while you can still use it as a guiding principle it isn't the perfect fit that it once was.