Array indexing vs. pointers...

[Doug Gwyn]

In article <1988Oct5.161523.6695 at utzoo.uucp> henry at utzoo.uucp (Henry Spencer) writes:
>As Knuth once said, approximately, "in no other branch of engineering is an
>easily-obtained 10% improvement in performance viewed with scorn".

That isn't even a correct obervation, let alone relevant.
Consider adding nitro to your gasoline.
Unless you're a drag racer it would be pretty stupid,
and I'm pretty sure that most automotive engineers would agree.

The idea is to strive for a truly optimal solution to a problem,
taking ALL relevant factors into proper account.  Of course this
cannot be done exactly in practice, but it should steer one's
approach.  Note that some relevant factors might include the
availability of resources for software maintenance, adaptability
to changing future needs, and other even harder to quantify
factors.  One thing for sure:  Concentrating on a single factor
to the exclusion of other obviously relevant ones is quite
likely to produce a suboptimal result.