TIB: Microsloth and Bloat


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TIB: Microsloth and Bloat




     Sorry if this is a little long, however I am upset that many 
programmers seem to believe that only their program will be on a person's 
calculator. So the programmer says, "Lets put string in a matrix such as 
'empty', 'grass', 'enemy', 'tree' and 'mountain' for every tile." Now if 
this was necessary, which it was not, it would be okay to use the extra 
5k. To all of you out there that think this is okay to do something like 
this it is not, use 1 for empty, 2 for grass and so on. Let us not be 
like Microsloth and bloat our code unnecessarily.

     Secondly, people like to programs that are already out there to 
compete. This is fine for the programmer, gains skill, and for the user, 
more choices. This is not okay though when people write programs do less 
and takes up more memory. Example, Icon Maker
<http://www.ticalc.org/pub/92/graphics/iconmake.zip> takes up 1618 bytes 
(By the time you read this a new copy that has more features and is 1602 
bytes will have uploaded.), but another person has Icon Editor 
<ftp://ftp.ticalc.org/pub/92/graphics/iconmake.zip> takes up about 1850 
bytes and this program has less functionality than Icon Maker. I don't 
mind that he wrote it, but I do mind that he uploaded it when there is 
smaller, faster and more functional available. So please when a person 
writes a program please make smaller (or at least faster than) if the 
program has less functionality.

     I hope my rant has helped point out to those (and you know who you 
are) to limit the Microsloth approach and to write smaller faster and 
more feature rich programs. If people will take to heart only one word my 
it be: OPTIMIZE

Please don't take offense by this, but a learning experience
Michael Van Der Kolk