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Introduction to Performance Tuning
Performance tuning, as used in the context of this book, is the process of improving the run
speed of an application, function, or algorithm.
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Tuning is often repetitive, each tuning
pass improving the application’s speed compared to the previous version. It is much more
of an art than a science, and a wide variety of different techniques can often be employed
to achieve the required speed boost.
Before jumping into the thicket of techniques for proling and improving program per-
formance, we should understand the larger picture. Why should we bother to performance
tune? How should we handle the tuning process? ...