[Shootout-list] Safety vs. speed

[Brent Fulgham]

On 2004-09-22 00:36:49 -0700 Brandon J. Van Every 
<vanevery@indiegamedesign.com> wrote:

>> That's why I put it in a different paragraph.  I don't get
>> your point.
> 
> My point is that integer overflow isn't necessarily a safety issue.

I agree this is a reasonable position, so long as you are clear in 
your reasoning as to what
cases it is allowable, and in what cases it is deadly.

>> To me, knowledge of the speed of a language without regard to
>> its safeness is not very useful.
> 
> Well, I'm a performance guy.  I think safety is boring.

Yes.  It's no fun to eat your vegetables, but both will help you live 
longer.

>> Why would I want to switch from C (which I know is
>> fast) to language X, unless langauge X performs almost as well as C,
>> *plus* language X provides additional safety?
> 
> Higher levels of programming abstraction without sacrificing
> performance. 

We could argue that high levels of programming abstraction (such as 
functional
composition, etc.) are fundamental aspects of safer languages.  :-)

-Brent