New chapter: optimization

content/books/things-i-learnt/_index.md

@@ -50,6 +50,7 @@ template = "section-contentless.html"
 		* [Start Stupid](start-stupid)
 		* [Always Use Timezones With Your Dates](use-timezones)
 		* [Always Use UTF-8 For Your Strings](use-utf8)
+		* [Optimization Is For Compilers](optimization)
 	* Making Things Go
 		* [The Config File Is Friend](config-file)
 		* [Command Line Options Are Weird, But Helpful](command-line-options)

content/books/things-i-learnt/config-file/index.md

@@ -52,4 +52,4 @@ you'll find that you're half-way through it.
 [^1]: In other words, they have a [time to
   live](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_to_live).
 
-{{ chapters(prev_chapter_link="/books/things-i-learnt/use-utf8", prev_chapter_title="Always Use UTF-8 For Your Strings", next_chapter_link="/books/things-i-learnt/command-line-options", next_chapter_title="Command Line Options Are Weird, But Helpful") }}
+{{ chapters(prev_chapter_link="/books/things-i-learnt/optimization", prev_chapter_title="Optimization Is For Compilers", next_chapter_link="/books/things-i-learnt/command-line-options", next_chapter_title="Command Line Options Are Weird, But Helpful") }}

content/books/things-i-learnt/optimization/index.md

@@ -0,0 +1,39 @@
++++
+title = "Things I Learnt The Hard Way - Optimization Is For Compilers"
+date = 2019-07-15
+
+[taxonomies]
+tags = ["en-au", "books", "things i learnt", "optimization"]
++++
+
+Let say you need more performance on your application. You may be tempted to
+look at your code and think "How can I keep this same logic and still remove a
+few cycles, so things seem to go faster?" Well, if you want performance, you
+need to change your logic.
+
+<!-- more -->
+
+But before jumping into the code, you may have to check your compiler options.
+Maybe you're not generating the optimized version. Maybe there is an option
+that you don't use that you can remove from the compilation.
+
+'Cause "optimization" is what a compiler is for. They _know_ where they can
+extract most of the underlying architecture, and people have been finding ways
+to make the compiled code more performance for decades. Heck, compilers can
+even _delete_ parts of your code 'cause they can "see" that a piece of code
+will always produce the same result and, thus, isn't necessary and they will
+just put the same result where that piece of code was.
+
+What you need to do is to think about a better _design_ for your code, not how
+to improve the current code. And trying to trick the compiler by [messing with
+the types](/books/things-i-learnt/data-types), although may produce faster
+code, will really screw you in the future -- specially cause maintenance and
+code understanding will take long and figuring out what went wrong will always
+be harder.
+
+Code is written for humans to read. _ALWAYS_. Optimization is what compilers
+do. So find a smarter way to explain what you're trying to do instead of using
+shorter words or messing with that your code is saying.
+
+{{ chapters(prev_chapter_link="/books/things-i-learnt/use-utf8", prev_chapter_title="Always Use UTF-8 For Your Strings", next_chapter_link="/books/things-i-learnt/config-file", next_chapter_title="The Config File Is Friend") }}
+

content/books/things-i-learnt/use-utf8/index.md

@@ -52,4 +52,4 @@ single character. Walking through the whole string would require traversing
 the string character by character, instead of simply jumping straight to the
 proper position. But that's a price worth paying, in the long run.
 
-{{ chapters(prev_chapter_link="/books/things-i-learnt/use-timezones", prev_chapter_title="Always Use Timezones With Your Dates", next_chapter_link="/books/things-i-learnt/config-file", next_chapter_title="The Config File Is Friend") }}
+{{ chapters(prev_chapter_link="/books/things-i-learnt/use-timezones", prev_chapter_title="Always Use Timezones With Your Dates", next_chapter_link="/books/things-i-learnt/optimization", next_chapter_title="Optimization Is For Compilers") }}