<SNIP> > Over the last few years programs have become larger and larger, > partially because programmers have stopped worrying so much about CPU > and/or adding additional functionality, but more likely some combination > thereof. Writing better programs (IMO) means writing the program that > is less CPU/memory intensive _and_ at the same time being more secure. > Why should we have to give up one for the other? I believe we can do > them both. </SNIP> While I agree partially, we cannot forget the evolution of programming languages as a catylist for ignoring CPU & memory. As languages become more abstract there are fewer tools for manipulating memory directly. One of the main selling points of high-level languages is the fact that you DO NOT have to worry about manually handling garbage collection or memory manipulation. Also, it is MUCH cheaper to upgrade the hardware that a program is running on, then to invest thousands of man-hours into making the program more efficient. Hardware tends to advance (in terms of power & speed) relatively quickly, as compared to software. I do not mean to say that program efficiency should not be addressed, because performance is *always* an issue. But the point of these higher-level languages is that programmers can focus on architecture, security, and other things... rather than having to spend time maximizing the speed of a particular method. My $0.02 Ryan Lowe http://www.pablowe.net
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