5 ms·

Readable code is better than efficient code

• bediger4000 4y ago
  100% agree. But unreadable inefficient code often exists. What then?
  • samemail88 4y ago
    Unreadable inefficient code should be caught in pull requests. If its already in the code base, it should be refactored as the code gets touched.
  • jka 4y ago
    There can be a good intellectual challenge in refactoring code like that to be both efficient and readable (although at some extremes, and depending on the programming language, perhaps there'll be conflict between those two goals). All the better if that refactoring is in a FOSS application/library to save other people the repeat effort (and potentially gather further improvements). Your question reminded me of Raymond Hettinger's excellent 2015 PyCon talk about refactoring functional-but-messy Python code: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wf-BqAjZb8M https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wf-BqAjZb8M (as previously discussed on HN: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10023818 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10023818)