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How do I learn to optimize my code better? (lemmy.ml)

submitted 5 months ago by [email protected] to c/learn_programming

19 comments fedilink hide all child comments

I'm trying to make minesweeper using rust and bevy, but it feels that my code is bloated (a lot of for loops, segments that seem to be repeating themselves, etc.)

When I look at other people's code, they are using functions that I don't really understand (map, zip, etc.) that seem to make their code faster and cleaner.

I know that I should look up the functions that I don't understand, but I was wondering where you would learn stuff like that in the first place. I want to learn how to find functions that would be useful for optimizing my code.

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[–] CameronDev 18 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Experience is the best teacher. Keep writing code, revisit old code and rewrite it.

Also, is worth knowing when not to optimise. Code you can read is code you can maintain, and some optimisations are not as readable.

Learn how to use a profiler. Its a bit of an artform, but learning to interpret the results will help you find slow code sections. It'll also help you determine if your optimisations are actually worthwhile. Measure first, optimise second.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 5 months ago (2 children)

Also, is worth knowing when not to optimise. Code you can read is code you can maintain, and some optimisations are not as readable.

This is one of my biggest pet peeves. So many people want to equate the number of lines as a sign of how well it's programmed. But all they really do is chain a bunch of stuff together that makes it harder to debug.

[–] CameronDev 5 points 5 months ago

Annoys me as well. Blind optimisation is just busy work, you need to know what your optimising for.

And less lines != better performance.

[–] balder1993 2 points 5 months ago

“Any improvements made anywhere besides the bottleneck are an illusion” (Gene Kim)