Classic on practical methods of optimizing programs: This book gives practical advice on improving the efficiency (optimizing) programs and the limits there of. While showing how to trade off speed for space or vice-versa, the author points out the limits that can be expected to gain. His list of techniques is a collection of practical approaches rather than theoretical possibilities. At 158 pages (not counting index) this book is eminently readable, accessable and useful. Clearly written and well organized this is a book to keep on your shelf for when a program needs improving. It is also a book to read before a program as a reminder not to make things complicated with optimization that aren't needed.

Writing Fast Programs" provides the basic elements of code optimization and provides strategies for reducing bottlenecks in practical simulation and numerical modeling code. The target audience is scientists and engineers and students in these fields. One pre-publication reviewer called this a much-needed intermediate text to bridge the gap between existing introductory and more advance programming books aimed at scientists. "Writing Fast Programs" does not teach basic programming; some programming proficiency is assumed, along with familiarity with the basic programming terminology. Code examples are presented in C, but BASIC (as a convenient pseudo-language) examples are provided for those not familiar with C. In general, the strategies presented are not language specific and should therefore benefit a wide programming audience. For example, similar techniques have been discussed for Java.

Become a better programmer with performance improvement techniques such as concurrency, lock-free programming, atomic operations, parallelism, and memory management Key Features Learn proven techniques from a heavyweight and recognized expert in C++ and high-performance computing Understand the limitations of modern CPUs and their performance impact Find out how you can avoid writing inefficient code and get the best optimizations from the compiler Learn the tradeoffs and costs of writing high-performance programs Book DescriptionThe great free lunch of "performance taking care of itself" is over. Until recently, programs got faster by themselves as CPUs were upgraded, but that doesn't happen anymore. The clock frequency of new processors has almost peaked, and while new architectures provide small improvements to existing programs, this only helps slightly. To write efficient software, you now have to know how to program by making good use of the available computing resources, and this book will teach you how to do that. The Art of Efficient Programming covers all the major aspects of writing efficient programs, such as using CPU resources and memory efficiently, avoiding unnecessary computations, measuring performance, and how to put concurrency and multithreading to good use. You'll also learn about compiler optimizations and how to use the programming language (C++) more efficiently. Finally, you'll understand how design decisions impact performance. By the end of this book, you'll not only have enough knowledge of processors and compilers to write efficient programs, but you'll also be able to understand which techniques to use and what to measure while improving performance. At its core, this book is about learning how to learn.What you will learn Discover how to use the hardware computing resources in your programs effectively Understand the relationship between memory order and memory barriers Familiarize yourself with the performance implications of different data structures and organizations Assess the performance impact of concurrent memory accessed and how to minimize it Discover when to use and when not to use lock-free programming techniques Explore different ways to improve the effectiveness of compiler optimizations Design APIs for concurrent data structures and high-performance data structures to avoid inefficiencies Who this book is for This book is for experienced developers and programmers who work on performance-critical projects and want to learn new techniques to improve the performance of their code. Programmers in algorithmic trading, gaming, bioinformatics, computational genomics, or computational fluid dynamics communities will get the most out of the examples in this book, but the techniques are fairly universal. Although this book uses the C++ language, the concepts demonstrated in the book can be easily transferred or applied to other compiled languages such as C, Java, Rust, Go, and more.

A simple step-by-step process for breaking any writing project large or small into bite-sized chunks and then turning them into the desired finished format at lightning speed. A must-read book for all levels.

Speed Writing Skills Training Course: Speedwriting, a guide to faster note taking, an easy to learn alternative to shorthand Most people need a note taking system for work or study but few people have the time or inclination to spend a year or two learning shorthand. BakerWrite Speed Writing enables you to learn a new system in a matter of hours and become proficient within weeks. This book is laid out in 6 easy to follow lessons, that take about an hour each. Practical guided exercises, with full answers, in each chapter and each session is rounded off with a dictation passage (available from http: //www.UoLearn.com) Save time and become more efficient taking dictation, in meetings, on the telephone, in lectures or interviews. No strange squiggles to learn - just different ways to use the letters you already know. Your notes will be easy to transcribe. A terrific opportunity to save time and change your working practices - for the better What do people think of this speed writing system? "The principles are very easy to follow, and I am already using it to take notes." "BakerWrite is the easiest shorthand system I have come across. Having studied all the major shorthand systems and even other speed writing courses, I find BakerWrite a sheer delight." "I will use this system all the time." "Your system is so easy to learn and use." Heather studied Pitman shorthand at school and then at secretarial college in England; she later learned Teeline shorthand and now regularly teaches these. BakerWriteTM is based on her experience with these systems and 22 years as a secretary and PA - taking notes daily. She has been training and coaching secretaries, PAs and administrators since 2000. Please note there is an alternative edition of this book, Easy 4 Me 2 Learn Speed Writing. Heather had over twenty years' experience as a secretary and PA before setting up Baker Thompson Associates Limited in 2000. The company specializes in the training and development of secretarial and administrative staff, www.bakerthompsonassoc.co.uk She now travels all over the UK working with large and small companies to enable their office staff and PAs to work more effectively. She developed this speed writing system to fulfill a requirement by many companies for a quick and easy way for their employees to take notes. The course became very popular and she was often asked if there was a book with the basics of the system - so here it is To contact Heather please visit the speedwriting section of the publishers' website, http: //www.UoLearn.com I am 51 years old and have been a secretary more or less since I left school. I took the requisite Pitmans shorthand course whilst at school and have never been able to understand it, all those squiggles and lines. I have used my own speed writing version of words through the years and have managed to get by (as long as I dealt with the notes as soon as I had written them and the dictator wasn't too quick - so it was half memory and half being able to read my own shorthand version). But now, everything is so clear and makes complete sense. I take your book on the train every morning and even after the first reading it completely made sense and I could even remember most of what I had read in the first chapter and believe me my memory at retaining new info is not as it used to be. Even when I was reading your abbreviations I was able to see what they were in a lot of cases before I checked the meaning. I am thoroughly enjoying learning a new skill from a book that is so simple to understand and I have already started to implement my new dictionary of words when taking notes. A great big thank you for developing a system that is so easy to understand and completely workable and I looking forward to showing off my new skills when taking notes (which I will actually be able to understand) at the next board meeting. Ann

The core of scientific computing is designing, writing, testing, debugging and modifying numerical software for application to a vast range of areas: from graphics, meteorology and chemistry to engineering, biology and finance. Scientists, engineers and computer scientists need to write good code, for speed, clarity, flexibility and ease of re-use. Oliveira and Stewart's style guide for numerical software points out good practices to follow, and pitfalls to avoid. By following their advice, readers will learn how to write efficient software, and how to test it for bugs, accuracy and performance. Techniques are explained with a variety of programming languages, and illustrated with two extensive design examples, one in Fortran 90 and one in C++: other examples in C, C++, Fortran 90 and Java are scattered throughout the book. This manual of scientific computing style will be an essential addition to the bookshelf and lab of everyone who writes numerical software.

* Will appeal to the same (large) audience as Joel on Software * Contains exclusive commentary by Joel * Lots of free publicity both because of Joel’s influence in the community and the influence of the contributors