[GLLUG] Software Library Release

[Thomas Hruska]

Bong Munoz wrote:
> On 2/12/07, Thomas Hruska <thruska at cubiclesoft.com> wrote:
>>
>> ... Finding
>> an entry requires scanning the linked list linearly, resulting in O(N^2)
>> load times (i.e. the bigger the config, the longer it takes to load).
>> Consider using a hash instead.
>>
> 
> A configuration file where a linear search in C becomes significant should
> be massive. If grep can go through a 7Mb file in mere seconds an O(N) 
> linear
> scan should be efficient enough. Besides, configuration data is usually 
> only
> loaded once.
> 
> --bong

grep and this library are unrelated in what they do.  I'll grant you 
that it would probably be a massive config where performance becomes an 
issue, but if you have to equate the library to grep, it would be 
similar to running grep for each entry in the config (minus the time it 
took to start up grep's executable for each search).  A program that 
loads a configuration is going to want each and every value from that 
configuration with defaults as a fallback position if an entry is 
missing or invalid.  So the entire config would be searched for each 
entry until it was found...starting at the beginning.  A way to 
potentially speed up configuration loading while retaining the linked 
list would be to delete each entry after it is found.  This becomes 
close to O(1) if the config is sorted the way the program expects the 
options to appear in.  Anyway, that was my last point in a list of 
design issues and really didn't think it was all that important.

-- 
Thomas Hruska
CubicleSoft President
Ph: 517-803-4197

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