Re: Incremental Data Structures

[Eric Pettersen <pett@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

David Mechner wrote:
>I think there's a trap for all of us in computer go, which is the
>impulse to put lots of time and effort into things that we know how go
>about doing - like interface, or optimizing for memory and cpu time -
>instead of the things that are hard and confusing - making the
>computer play go.

Absolutely.  What I do when I get tempted by the "dark side" (making speed  
optimizations instead of knowledge improvements) is to generously estimate  
how much the optimization will gain me, then play the current version at  
that "speed" (i.e. allowing extra thinking time to simulate the  
optimization's effect).  Usually, after such a simulation it's obvious that  
knowledge improvements are much more critical than speed improvements.
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			Eric Pettersen
			pett@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (NeXTmail capable)