CPU matters (was Re: Moving to MC 2.7)

[FlexibleLearning at aol.com]

> standalone. Some of my stacks are "image intensive" and this 200 -  1000 
> millisecond speed difference that Wilhelm discovered would  matter.

I'm sure that the cumulative effects of a slower routine will add up, but  
the CPU has a greater effect by orders of magnitude. For example, my now aging  
G4 466MHz/320Mb seems crashingly slow compared to my XP Athlon 3400 
4GHz/512MB.  Yes, obviously we optimize a routine's performance, but a couple of ticks 
here  or there is hardly going to register on the speed scale when using a 
go-faster  computer. With RAM and cycles improving and prices dropping, the trend 
seems to  be to write around things rather optimize them. Otherwise why does 
MSWord now  need a CD install when a BBC 'B' used a floppy for a word 
processor? There  seems little point in saving milliseconds when the end-user should 
simply  get a bigger, better and cheaper machine. 
 
Flame war anyone?
 
:-))
 
/H
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