No, not really, but this thread got me wondering “what tradeoffs do you make when considering which language to choose”? (Yes, some of us treat languages like tools and switch between them when appropriate.)

I’ve got a potential project which is traditionally done in C++, notionally for the speed advantages of C++ over other languages. But I’ve been thinking about that requirement. Do we want a “a program that runs as fast as possible” or do we want “a program that runs within a specified time span”? If the time span is sufficiently small, is there a difference?

Now, everyone will say “we want a program that runs as fast as possible” but they don’t really. If they really wanted the program to run “as fast as possible”, they would opt for writing the application in assembler code, but of course, no one actually does that (except for the embedded folks). What people (think they) really want is one that runs as fast as possible that can be written reasonably cheaply (for varying values of ‘reasonable’ and ‘cheap’).

Now, I know most of the programmers in the audience are going ‘Duh!’ but you’re just as guilty of this bias as the non-technical people; when asked “why do you program in C/C++?” the first thing out of your mouths is usually “It’s fast!” not “It’s the best language for the job!” (Besides, how can it be the best language for the job when I never mentioned what the job was?).

So, if I can get a program to run within a specified time interval as opposed to ‘as fast as possible’, why shouldn’t I, particulalry with a language that’s “easier” to program in?

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Posted on Thursday, May 1st, 2008 at 12:00 pm under computer programming and tagged: musings. Comment RSS 2.0 feed. Comment, or trackback.