Useful books

[Steve Hutton]

In article <9D0B2E90-27C1-11D7-AA9A-0003937E39E0@bellsouth.net>,
David Leimbach wrote:
> 
>> [4] Efficient C  , Dov Bulka & Davis Mayhew, possibly aimed at the 
>> already written code and how to improve it.
>>
> 
> I don't think this is aimed at already written code.... for that you 
> may want to checkout "Refactoring" published by Addison Wesley.  I have 
> this book and I don't think you can help a bad design once its proven 
> to be inefficient.  Sometimes you *really do* have to throw crap out to 
> make good stuff happen.

_Refactoring_ is a good book - but it's mostly about how to improve
the structure of code to make it more maintainable, in a systematic
way that minimizes risk.  It is also very Java-centric.

The Bulka & Mayhew book has been referred to by Scott Meyers as something
like "the only C++ optimization book, therefore the best".  Many of its
tips are covered by Meyers.  Bulka & Mayhew acknowledge that low level
optimization actually reduces readability and maintainability, which 
puts it at odds with _Refactoring_.  Their book is also very focused on
specific C++ language issues.

FWIW, from what I've seen kde-core developers are pretty familiar with
language level C++ optimizations covered by the literature, and they
have additional platform specific knowledge about linux toolchain issues.
(Ok, so some of the Safari performance enhancements were very basic
pass by const reference changes, but I'm pretty sure the khtml developers
overlooked those through lack of time, not ignorance.)

Steve