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Old Jan 2nd, 2007, 6:24 PM   #9
DaWei
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Abstraction is a trade off between efficient use of the programmer's time, and efficient use of the computers time. Computers double in speed about every two years, whilst humans do not. Thus, it would seem to me as if computers would be the more logical choice to deal with any efficiencies, rather than human programmers.
This is bottom-line, hit-the-nail-on-the-head territory. My current PC has 12,000 times as much memory as my first PC. It clocks 24,000 times as fast. I have 80,000 times as much mass storage. It cost 1/4 the bucks.

I can do more, faster, with much less effort. Sure, I despise ugly, crappy, inefficient code, when better is merely a matter of additional thought. I bitch about slugs at the keyboard, not at the machine or its languages. The trade-off is too valuable.
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Abstraction doesn't make it impossible to write bad code; it makes it possible to write superior code.
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