From meissner@lynx.cs.usfca.edu Sun Mar 22 05:36:16 1992
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Date: Sat, 21 Mar 92 20:34:35 -0800
From: meissner@lynx.cs.usfca.edu (Loren P. Meissner)
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To: sc22wg5%dkuug.dk@ion
Subject: performance vs reliability etc.
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  I have been trying to teach my "Theory of Algorithms" class this semester
that the 3 most important characteristics of a "good algorithm" are
1. User Friendly
2. Robust
3. Efficient
in that order.  However, the first two are harder to quantify, so most
of the "theory of algorithms" books talk about #3.
 Users of Fortran are just as interested in #1 and #2 as anybody, but I
think they are more interested in #3 than users of some other languages are.
I consider "efficiency" pretty much a synonym for "performance" as Presley
is using the term.
 It is not that Fortran users think efficiency is more important than
other properties - it is just that they emphasize it more than the users
of OTHER LANGUAGES do.
-Loren