Efficient C/C++ Programming: Smaller, Faster, Better/Book and Disk [Paperback]

Steve Heller (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1994

This book provides C and C++ programmers with invaluable tools for optimizing their code to run "large problems" on "small machines". Optimization is presented at the algorithmic level, and explanations are provided for how to re-think and re-cast applications to make them work more efficiently. Includes a disk containing source code for all examples found in the book.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

This book provides C and C++ programmers with invaluable tools for optimizing their code. Optimization is presented at the algorithmic level and explanations are provided for how to rethink and recast applications to make them work more efficiently. Numerous programming techniques are covered, including sorting, hashing, data compression, and the quantum file access method, which allows efficient access to records whos sizes vary dynamically. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

You'll find that attitude again and again throughout this book: What's good is what works, and works efficiently; that is, without spending either space or cycles to no clear gain. Steve is not afraid to create a data structure that bows to the inevitable peccadilloes of the underlying hardware, if doing so will make it a more efficient data structure. Steve's totally awesome quantum file access algorithm (see Chapter 7) is a superb example. It's an algorithm, yes, but it was brought to life with the express intent that it run efficiently on late-build Intel processors-- primarily the 486.

Hey, if you want portability, be prepared to pay for it.

So let me make a few suggestions: Read this book, from start to finish, and while doing so set aside any preconceived notions you may have about "beautiful" code, or portable code, or lord knows, fast code. (Recursion, for example, is "beautiful." It's also dangerous, and slow.) Also, don't just look at the code. Load it, compile it, run it, understand it--not just as code, but as an element of a larger system that includes--rather than willfully ignores--the underlying hardware.

Once you do that, you will have learned a lot.

Not just theoretically. For real--and for all time. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 500 pages
• Publisher: Morgan Kaufmann Pub; 2 Pap/Dis edition (October 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0123390958
• ISBN-13: 978-0123390950
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 7.4 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #755,728 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars It provides plenty to study for a stay on a desert island., June 5, 1996

By A Customer

This review is from: Efficient C/C++ Programming: Smaller, Faster, Better/Book and Disk (Paperback)

Heller's book is nothing if not grounded onactual problems he has encountered in a career as a programmer.Heller presents actual test results, comparing various approaches. Heller cites specific articles (where available) documenting the algorithms chapter examples are based upon. When articles are not available, he spends time explaining the algorithms. If my inter-library loan privileges at the Downey City Library were not already at their maximum order level, all of the journal articles cited in EC/C++P would already be on order. Chapter 5 goes deeply into an example of a token threaded little language, providing one of the best explanations of token threading I've encountered. Heller has a history of work in this area, as can be verified by articles he has had published in "Computer Language" magazine. ("OMNI: One person's language", Dec., 1984, pp.58-62, "Design Your Own Language", Jan., 1986, pp.61-63) The results from this chapter should be wider known; maybe more work in this area could justify an article in the Forth Interest Group's journal where this sort of topic is hotly discussed. It also touches on an article I saw recently, something to the effect of "Unified Memory: Not So Crazy After All?". (this all ties together, believe me!) Chapters 4, 5 and 7 get into assembly language. This didn't really spoil things for me, because it was in the context of the overall project of the chapters. The main emphasis throughout the book is on getting the algorithms out of papers and into working code. The "Entropy barrier" for sorting is shattered most logically. Peter van der Linden, of SUNSoft, once picked hashing as his "Desert Island Algorithm". EC/C++P provides plenty to study for a long stay. In short, the benefits from reading the book may have differed somewhat from the reasons I started reading it, but were real none the less. reviewed by Dallas E. Legan [e-mail] [e-mail] [e-mail]

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars efficient database methods, May 29, 1996

By A Customer

This review is from: Efficient C/C++ Programming: Smaller, Faster, Better/Book and Disk (Paperback)

This book is an easy-to-understand description of *why* to be concerned about speed, as well as ways to improve the execution time (response time) for common database applications. Too many programmers write code assuming that tomorrow's machine will be more memory, faster, and that speed won't matter. It still does matter in many applications. The book has extensive listings, which didn't impress me, as well as the code available on disk for practice and evaluation. I've picked up a few ideas from the book and found it worth the time to read. Charlie Weesner