Slow performance compared to C++, ideas?

Andrei Alexandrescu SeeWebsiteForEmail at erdani.org
Thu Jun 6 22:14:57 PDT 2013


On 6/6/13 9:19 PM, Walter Bright wrote:
> On 6/6/2013 5:00 PM, Andrei Alexandrescu wrote:
>> On 6/6/13 5:57 PM, Walter Bright wrote:
>>> On 6/6/2013 2:23 PM, Andrei Alexandrescu wrote:
>>>> (The tool I'm envisioning
>>>> would add final annotations or prompt the user to add them.)
>>>
>>> Sorry, that's never going to fly.
>>
>> Like a dove.
>
> Few companies care about performance like Facebook does. What
> performance analysis tools does FB use routinely and pervasively?

We built our own, an entire complex system, and an entire team is 
working on it. I've used it for four experiments today, and am about to 
launch one more.

> In my experience with major software companies, using anything other
> than -O is quite rare. Use of a profiler? nevah hoppin. Yes, a maverick
> here and there will use them, but use is not pervasive and routine.
>
> Will our canonical D newbie coming from C++ or Java use such a tool?
> Nope. They'll run the compiler, if we're lucky they'll throw -O -release
> -inline -noboundscheck, then they'll give the thumbs up or down on
> performance. This thread is a classic example.

I disapprove of this attitude, it's not constructive and kills 
creativity. When I wrote rdmd (not that that's an example of a creative 
idea!), I was its sole user for some six months, and whenever I'd 
mention it you were just as skeptical of its utility. Very slowly word 
got by and now it's a quite popular tool. You were just as skeptical 
about dustmite, and that has also become popular.

If we have a tool that just class hierarchy analysis on a project by 
just saying

cha --in-place *.d

then people will notice. I don't buy all that "humans aren't rational" 
stuff.


Andrei


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