Programming Pearls, 2nd Edition

Appendix 4: Rules for Code Tuning

My 1982 book Writing Efficient Programs was built around 27 rules for code tuning. That book is now out of print, so the rules are repeated here (with only a few small changes), together with examples of how they are used in this book.

Space-For-Time Rules

Data Structure Augmentation. The time required for common operations on data can often be reduced by augmenting the structure with extra information or by changing the information within the structure so that it can be accessed more easily.

In Section 9.2, Wright wanted to find nearest neighbors (by angle) among a set of points on the surface of the globe represented by latitude and longitude, which involved expensive trigonometric operations. Appel augmented ...