From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.3 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00,INVALID_MSGID autolearn=no autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: fc89c,97188312486d4578 X-Google-Attributes: gidfc89c,public X-Google-Thread: 109fba,baaf5f793d03d420 X-Google-Attributes: gid109fba,public X-Google-Thread: 1014db,6154de2e240de72a X-Google-Attributes: gid1014db,public X-Google-Thread: 103376,97188312486d4578 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public From: Christopher R Volpe Subject: Re: What's the best language to start with? [was: Re: Should I learn C or Pascal?] Date: 1996/08/08 Message-ID: <320A4360.130@ash.crd.ge.com>#1/1 X-Deja-AN: 172968757 references: <31FBC584.4188@ivic.qc.ca> <01bb8342$88cc6f40$32ee6fcf@timhome2> <4u7grn$eb0@news1.mnsinc.com> <01bb83ad$29c3cfa0$87ee6fce@timpent.airshields.com> <4u89c4$p7p@solutions.solon.com> <01bb83f5$923391e0$87ee6fce@timpent.airshields.com> content-type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii organization: GE Corporate Research & Development, Schenectady, NY mime-version: 1.0 newsgroups: comp.lang.c,comp.lang.c++,comp.unix.programmer,comp.lang.ada x-mailer: Mozilla 2.0 (X11; I; SunOS 5.4 sun4m) Date: 1996-08-08T00:00:00+00:00 List-Id: Dan Pop wrote: > > In <01bb83f5$923391e0$87ee6fce@timpent.airshields.com> "Tim Behrendsen" writes: > > >The problem is that we *can't* think purely abstractly, > >otherwise we end up with slow crap code. > > Care to provide some concrete examples? I'll give ya one: Michael Laszlo's implementation of the Bentley and Ottmann plane sweep line intersection algorithm in "Computational Geometry and Computer Graphics in C++". Very well designed code, in terms of abstract data structures. Nice O(n log n) algorithm. Looks like a work of art. Runs a hundred times as slow as a brute-force O(n^2) algorithm, except when the dataset is a bit on the large side, in which case it dies after exhausting the virtual memory of my Sparc 20. -- Chris Volpe Phone: (518) 387-7766 GE Corporate R&D Fax: (518) 387-6560 PO Box 8 Email: volpecr@crd.ge.com Schenectady, NY 12301 Web: http://www.crd.ge.com/~volpecr