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Python is 1.3x faster by just adjusting some compiling options for libpython

bugs.python.org

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Re: Python is 1.3x faster by just adjusting some compiling options for libpython

#71

Post by jshen »

jchw wrote: post #11

There’s nothing wrong with this post factually, but the tone sucks. It has an immensely combative energy for what is not really a charged subject matter. Like sure. Today, a lot of the historical reasons for things seem silly and irrelevant. At one point, they did not seem silly and irrelevant. For compatibility with stuff sticking around from those days, we get some performance penalties that are not strictly necess…

He calls himself a troll on his FB profile. Honestly, it’s not surprising that someone who works at FB has a misaligned moral compass.

Re: Python is 1.3x faster by just adjusting some compiling options for libpython

#74

Post by QuercusMax »

hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #67
fpgaminer wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not OP, but I read the "antagonistic" style of the post as just the usual catharsis humor. All in-jest. I've used that style of writing plenty before. It's a good way to blow off the steam of working with these rather absurd, archaic systems that we have to tackle on a daily basis. Programming can feel a bit kafkaesque at times, so a bit of aggressive/dark humor goes a long way. But I do agree, it felt too thick. Sti…

The problem I see is that I often see this type of detached, "wow, look at all of these previous shitty decisions!" attitude inject itself, completely unnecessarily, into the workplace. I've actually made it something I won't compromise on: I refuse to hire people who I suspect will have this attitude. It's one thing to express frustration at previous decisions that make current work more difficult. However, when I s…

On one team, we had a lot of code that had been written hastily because we were OK with taking on technical debt in order to move more quickly. We'd reconsider old design decisions and blame "old $me". It was all done in good fun, and I was happy to take the blame as senior engineer.

Re: Python is 1.3x faster by just adjusting some compiling options for libpython

#76

Post by karmakaze »

jchw wrote: post #11

There’s nothing wrong with this post factually, but the tone sucks. It has an immensely combative energy for what is not really a charged subject matter. Like sure. Today, a lot of the historical reasons for things seem silly and irrelevant. At one point, they did not seem silly and irrelevant. For compatibility with stuff sticking around from those days, we get some performance penalties that are not strictly necess…

I couldn't see anything wrong with the post, it seems perfectly professional and dry. Then I realize that the link was updated from one with an arbitrary excerpt:

> (Windows took a different approach and got it right. In Windows, it's okay for multiple DLLs to provide the same symbol, and there's no sad and desperate effort to pretend that a single namespace is still cool.)

There's no need for technical topics to be emotionally charged, it only detracts from communicating the importance, correctness or benefits.

Re: Python is 1.3x faster by just adjusting some compiling options for libpython

#77

Post by kranner »

coldtea wrote: post #55
rtpg wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is recalling the old Linus debates, but the aggressiveness _doesn't improve the clarity_, and is basically upping the word count. I'm not tone policing but contesting the premise that "aggressive tone" = "direct". For example >(Windows took a different approach and got it right. In Windows, it's okay for multiple DLLs to provide the same symbol, and there's no sad and desperate effort to pretend that a single na…

> This is recalling the old Linus debates, but the aggressiveness _doesn't improve the clarity_, and is basically upping the word count. It drives the point home though, and keeps the energy levels higher.

This may be subjective. For others (including me), it drives the irritation level higher and makes it harder to pay attention. Ranty writing fuels my own tendency to get annoyed and ranty; it makes me want to disengage to preserve my own mood. ("Holub on Patterns" is one example of a book I couldn't finish because of this quality of the writing.)

Personally for me, concise and information-dense writing makes me sit up and pay attention.

Re: Python is 1.3x faster by just adjusting some compiling options for libpython

#78

Post by snet0 »

CalChris wrote: post #37
jordigh wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I found his no holds barred clarity Being right is no excuse for being an asshole. The attitude will appeal to some. It will strike many others in the wrong way and put them on the defensive. There's no reason to write this way. A concise, well-articulated, non-combative post will appeal to everyone and still convey the same information.

I don’t think it’s possible to be an asshole to an inanimate object.

If I criticise a portrait, am I not criticising the painter?

Re: Python is 1.3x faster by just adjusting some compiling options for libpython

#80

Post by QuadrupleA »

jordigh wrote: post #44
CalChris wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t think it’s possible to be an asshole to an inanimate object.

Someone wrote that inanimate object. Someone likes that inanimate object. Someone thinks that inanimate object has reasons to be the way it is. Attacking that inanimate object is not without emotional repercussions to those related to that object.

I think it's necessary to criticize technical work (or any work) as long as the people involved care about achieving good results and making things work.

Agreed that we should not be excessively abrasive, and I think the facebook post is leaning that way - but I don't think a world without criticism can work - at a certain point in any field you have to face reality, in which some things work and some don't, and to protect every person involved from "emotional repercussions" is impossible because generally people's beliefs and feelings are all over the map.

At any rate I'm not sure the author of LD_PRELOAD or ELF dynamic symbol interposition is scanning this thread - and after ~30 years distance might have different opinions about them, or at least a thicker skin :)

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