False selection...
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Hi, One reason for the original approach is it reduces processing time, which is of primary importance for a game engine. Your proposal will require the function to process each variable before returning while the original will check the most likely areas of failure first, then return -- eliminating the need to process the further checks.
.. argh I should have read all the sub threads before posting.. sorry.
I'd blame it on the Brain farts.. But let's be honest, it really is more like a Methane factory between my ears some days then it is anything else... -"The conversations he was having with himself were becoming ominous."-.. On the radio...
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Assuming it really is faster, this method isn't really part of the engine itself. it's not like this function will be run over and over again. Me personally, i wouldn't compromise readability over such a small performance increasement. But i'm severely starting to doubt myself, a lot of people seem to disagree this is a codehorror :s
have you ever had time to go get a burger during a loading scene...? :laugh:
I'd blame it on the Brain farts.. But let's be honest, it really is more like a Methane factory between my ears some days then it is anything else... -"The conversations he was having with himself were becoming ominous."-.. On the radio...
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But aren't these simply constants? So the value would still have to be the same right? if so, this would mean that you don't need to take them into account. Or am i missing the point :s
not necessarily, you have mip-maping, or dynamic scaling, or in game render target changes...
I'd blame it on the Brain farts.. But let's be honest, it really is more like a Methane factory between my ears some days then it is anything else... -"The conversations he was having with himself were becoming ominous."-.. On the radio...
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I'd probably go for this approach
/**
Determines if two display modes "match". Two display
modes match if they have the same resolution, bit depth,
and refresh rate. The bit depth is ignored if one of the
modes has a bit depth of DisplayMode.BIT_DEPTH_MULTI.
Likewise, the refresh rate is ignored if one of the
modes has a refresh rate of
DisplayMode.REFRESH_RATE_UNKNOWN.
*/
public boolean displayModesMatch(DisplayMode mode1,
DisplayMode mode2)
{
boolean isEqualDimention = (mode1.getWidth() == mode2.getWidth() && mode1.getHeight() == mode2.getHeight());
boolean isEqualDepth = (mode1.getBitDepth() == mode2.getBitDepth());
boolean isEqualRefreshRate = (mode1.getRefreshRate() == mode2.getRefreshRate());return (isEqualDimention && isEqualDepth && isEqualRefreshRate); }I think this is much more readable and much simpler.
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I'd probably go for this approach
/**
Determines if two display modes "match". Two display
modes match if they have the same resolution, bit depth,
and refresh rate. The bit depth is ignored if one of the
modes has a bit depth of DisplayMode.BIT_DEPTH_MULTI.
Likewise, the refresh rate is ignored if one of the
modes has a refresh rate of
DisplayMode.REFRESH_RATE_UNKNOWN.
*/
public boolean displayModesMatch(DisplayMode mode1,
DisplayMode mode2)
{
boolean isEqualDimention = (mode1.getWidth() == mode2.getWidth() && mode1.getHeight() == mode2.getHeight());
boolean isEqualDepth = (mode1.getBitDepth() == mode2.getBitDepth());
boolean isEqualRefreshRate = (mode1.getRefreshRate() == mode2.getRefreshRate());return (isEqualDimention && isEqualDepth && isEqualRefreshRate); }I think this is much more readable and much simpler.
I think the original version is better because I read it once and was reasonably confident I knew what it did, and also what was intended. The shorter, cleverer version I looked at and said "Eh?". In my first job I discovered that programs might have to survive being "fixed" by a half-drunk trainee who had been dragged from the pub when something went wrong on Friday night at the start of a holiday weekend and all the sober and competent programmers were gone. I know, I was that trainee. OK, so this isn't an IBM 360 COBOL accounting program, but still, clarity of intention is desirable. KISS, in fact.
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you version here is more costly... You have to remember that when your doing a game engine each comparison burns cycles, the initial example i would argue is faster to execute, if you know more about your environment... if the first statement is true, then you cut down on the number of lookups... using your "better code" actually has worse performance... because you force all the lookups! :doh:
I'd blame it on the Brain farts.. But let's be honest, it really is more like a Methane factory between my ears some days then it is anything else... -"The conversations he was having with himself were becoming ominous."-.. On the radio...
Check my last reply, 1 statement, no variables, only indenting to preserve readability and my personnal favorite
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Check my last reply, 1 statement, no variables, only indenting to preserve readability and my personnal favorite
I likes it at first glance.... succinct. These calls in my experience can be a bit black box however and although would work fine in situations where compute time isn't at a premium is always the best way to go, i would (at least in my projects) check to see if it is actually faster and produces less garbage (GC type garbage, not the visual type, which it obviously doesn't...). it's also been my experience that a lot of these nice API methods are just wrappers for crappy unoptimized code... the XNA. Vector3d.Distance function is a prime example of this... problem with API functions is that they need to be generic, and work in all situations (even when given properties..etc) and as such often make internal scope storage "inside the black box" to accomplish their result...{actually posed this question to a guy who wrote that function on the XNA team.. this was his answer!} so I see it as elegantly coded, but not necessarily the best approach in all situations..
I'd blame it on the Brain farts.. But let's be honest, it really is more like a Methane factory between my ears some days then it is anything else...
-----
"The conversations he was having with himself were becoming ominous."-.. On the radio... -
I'd probably go for this approach
/**
Determines if two display modes "match". Two display
modes match if they have the same resolution, bit depth,
and refresh rate. The bit depth is ignored if one of the
modes has a bit depth of DisplayMode.BIT_DEPTH_MULTI.
Likewise, the refresh rate is ignored if one of the
modes has a refresh rate of
DisplayMode.REFRESH_RATE_UNKNOWN.
*/
public boolean displayModesMatch(DisplayMode mode1,
DisplayMode mode2)
{
boolean isEqualDimention = (mode1.getWidth() == mode2.getWidth() && mode1.getHeight() == mode2.getHeight());
boolean isEqualDepth = (mode1.getBitDepth() == mode2.getBitDepth());
boolean isEqualRefreshRate = (mode1.getRefreshRate() == mode2.getRefreshRate());return (isEqualDimention && isEqualDepth && isEqualRefreshRate); }I think this is much more readable and much simpler.
This format definitely has an advantage in that if you suspect displayModesMatch of doing something wrong, or otherwise just want to know what it is doing, you only need to set one breakpoint. I guess both approaches have their merits. But before we just go ahead and assume that this way is better than that way, let's see how C++ would have done this task. I found the results quite surprising. To simplify, I used the following code snippet:
bool test1(int dim1, int dim2, int depth1, int depth2, int refresh1, int refresh2)
{
bool isEqDim = (dim1 == dim2);
bool isEqDepth = (depth1 == depth2);
bool isEqRefresh = (refresh1 == refresh2);
return isEqDim && isEqDepth && isEqRefresh;
}bool test2(int dim1, int dim2, int depth1, int depth2, int refresh1, int refresh2)
{
if (dim1 != dim2)
return false;
if (depth1 != depth2)
return false;
if (refresh1 != refresh2)
return false;
return true;
}void trialrig()
{
int dim1, dim2, depth1, depth2, refresh1, refresh2;
scanf("%i", &dim1);
scanf("%i", &dim2);
scanf("%i", &depth1);
scanf("%i", &depth2);
scanf("%i", &refresh1);
scanf("%i", &refresh2);
bool b1_1 = test1(dim1, dim2, depth1, depth2, refresh1, refresh2);
bool b2_1 = test2(dim1, dim2, depth1, depth2, refresh1, refresh2);
if (b1_1)
printf("b1 is true\n");
if (b2_1)
printf("b2 is true\n");
}The scanf's were important, because if they're not there, my compiler just optimized both the test functions out of existence. During compiling, some of these were inlined, so I have to compensate somewhat. So for simplicity, assume that both code blocks below are prefixed with these instructions:
mov eax, DWORD PTR \_dim1$\[esp+88\] mov ecx, DWORD PTR \_dim2$\[esp+88\] mov esi, DWORD PTR \_depth1$\[esp+88\] mov edi, DWORD PTR \_depth2$\[esp+88\] mov ebx, DWORD PTR \_refresh1$\[esp+88\] mov ebp, DWORD PTR \_refresh2$\[esp+88\]In release build, it produced the following for one of the two functions (excluding the preamble above):
cmp eax, ecx jne SHORT $LN7@test12 cmp esi, edi jne SHORT $LN7@test12 cmp ebx, ebp jne SHORT $LN7@test12 mov dl, 1 jmp SHORT $LN8@test12$LN7@test12:
xor dl, dl
$LN8@test12:And the following code for the other function:
cmp eax, ecx je -
This format definitely has an advantage in that if you suspect displayModesMatch of doing something wrong, or otherwise just want to know what it is doing, you only need to set one breakpoint. I guess both approaches have their merits. But before we just go ahead and assume that this way is better than that way, let's see how C++ would have done this task. I found the results quite surprising. To simplify, I used the following code snippet:
bool test1(int dim1, int dim2, int depth1, int depth2, int refresh1, int refresh2)
{
bool isEqDim = (dim1 == dim2);
bool isEqDepth = (depth1 == depth2);
bool isEqRefresh = (refresh1 == refresh2);
return isEqDim && isEqDepth && isEqRefresh;
}bool test2(int dim1, int dim2, int depth1, int depth2, int refresh1, int refresh2)
{
if (dim1 != dim2)
return false;
if (depth1 != depth2)
return false;
if (refresh1 != refresh2)
return false;
return true;
}void trialrig()
{
int dim1, dim2, depth1, depth2, refresh1, refresh2;
scanf("%i", &dim1);
scanf("%i", &dim2);
scanf("%i", &depth1);
scanf("%i", &depth2);
scanf("%i", &refresh1);
scanf("%i", &refresh2);
bool b1_1 = test1(dim1, dim2, depth1, depth2, refresh1, refresh2);
bool b2_1 = test2(dim1, dim2, depth1, depth2, refresh1, refresh2);
if (b1_1)
printf("b1 is true\n");
if (b2_1)
printf("b2 is true\n");
}The scanf's were important, because if they're not there, my compiler just optimized both the test functions out of existence. During compiling, some of these were inlined, so I have to compensate somewhat. So for simplicity, assume that both code blocks below are prefixed with these instructions:
mov eax, DWORD PTR \_dim1$\[esp+88\] mov ecx, DWORD PTR \_dim2$\[esp+88\] mov esi, DWORD PTR \_depth1$\[esp+88\] mov edi, DWORD PTR \_depth2$\[esp+88\] mov ebx, DWORD PTR \_refresh1$\[esp+88\] mov ebp, DWORD PTR \_refresh2$\[esp+88\]In release build, it produced the following for one of the two functions (excluding the preamble above):
cmp eax, ecx jne SHORT $LN7@test12 cmp esi, edi jne SHORT $LN7@test12 cmp ebx, ebp jne SHORT $LN7@test12 mov dl, 1 jmp SHORT $LN8@test12$LN7@test12:
xor dl, dl
$LN8@test12:And the following code for the other function:
cmp eax, ecx jeWow this information is interesting. Thx for the effort. I could be wrong but i can't see the solution with 1 statement anywhere among your tests functions. I presume that using that solution would be even faster.
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Wow this information is interesting. Thx for the effort. I could be wrong but i can't see the solution with 1 statement anywhere among your tests functions. I presume that using that solution would be even faster.
It's all in the first block of code. test1() vs. test2(). The examples are a bit contrived, and might not look like the original question anymore. For one thing, I just assume that you magically know the result of "getWidth()", etc. Basically, I try to pit the concept of declaring boolean variables versus returning false early against each other.
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It's all in the first block of code. test1() vs. test2(). The examples are a bit contrived, and might not look like the original question anymore. For one thing, I just assume that you magically know the result of "getWidth()", etc. Basically, I try to pit the concept of declaring boolean variables versus returning false early against each other.
i could be saying dumb shit here but would it be faster to not use the variables and simply return the whole thing?
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i could be saying dumb shit here but would it be faster to not use the variables and simply return the whole thing?
It's hard for me to tell what the answer would be inside a Java interpreter. I suspect that the difference will be small. I doubt that declaring local variables vs. not declaring will actually make a difference in C/C++. Local variables get assigned machine registers, and they may actually not require stack locations at all. In fact, with a decent optimizing compiler, the following snippets will compile to the same code:
void fx(int x)
{
doSomethingWithX(x);
}and
void fx(int x)
{
int descriptionForX = x;
doSomethingWithX(descriptionForX);
}The reason is that the 'descriptionForX' variable will be coalesced so that it uses the same register as x, and will subsequently be removed by the compiler.
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It's hard for me to tell what the answer would be inside a Java interpreter. I suspect that the difference will be small. I doubt that declaring local variables vs. not declaring will actually make a difference in C/C++. Local variables get assigned machine registers, and they may actually not require stack locations at all. In fact, with a decent optimizing compiler, the following snippets will compile to the same code:
void fx(int x)
{
doSomethingWithX(x);
}and
void fx(int x)
{
int descriptionForX = x;
doSomethingWithX(descriptionForX);
}The reason is that the 'descriptionForX' variable will be coalesced so that it uses the same register as x, and will subsequently be removed by the compiler.
That sounds reasonable to me. Your knowledge seems impressive. Nevertheless I think it is strange to return a boolean from the result of any if structure. It just seems strange to me. Just one remark on the variable/nonvariable matter. I don't know about C/C++ but in java when you combine boolean expressions using the && operator, automatically when 1 value is false the other expression are skipped. That's why i would assume that it has the same advantage of being able to skip part of the calculations. I would think when using the variables, that advantage would be partially lost because you'd split up the calculations, this enlarging the calculations i'd think. This is just theory i'm not sure of this sorry if i'm not clear i'm having trouble expressing myself in english
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OriginalGriff wrote:
That's why C# still has a "goto" but students are told not to use it.
I always thought it was because the developer who stole modified the C++ compiler forgot to take that part out.
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I think this is a code horror because all this could be done with 1 statement, this is the most performant way to do this AND with proper indenting the readability isn't compromised.
lordofawesome wrote:
I think this is a code horror because all this could be done with 1 statement, this is the most performant way to do this AND with proper indenting the readability isn't compromised.
I would like to see that one liner, that could be as quickly and easily understood as the original. Assuming that DisplayMode has only the elements that are being tested in this routine (height, width, depth, etc.), I think would be a mistake, and error prone should DisplayMode not now or in the future, contain only those elements. Flip the And/Or logic, swap != and == and remove the If's and you can do it in one return statement, but it wouldn't be as simple or quick to grasp.
Gary
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I think this is a code horror because all this could be done with 1 statement, this is the most performant way to do this AND with proper indenting the readability isn't compromised.
/**
Determines if two display modes "match". Two display
modes match if they have the same resolution, bit depth,
and refresh rate. The bit depth is ignored if one of the
modes has a bit depth of DisplayMode.BIT_DEPTH_MULTI.
Likewise, the refresh rate is ignored if one of the
modes has a refresh rate of
DisplayMode.REFRESH_RATE_UNKNOWN.
*/
public boolean displayModesMatch(DisplayMode mode1,
DisplayMode mode2)
{
return (mode1.getWidth() == mode2.getWidth() && // Same resolution?
mode1.getHeight() == mode2.getHeight()) &&
(mode1.getBitDepth() == DisplayMode.BIT_DEPTH_MULTI || // & Same Bit Depth?
mode2.getBitDepth() == DisplayMode.BIT_DEPTH_MULTI ||
mode1.getBitDepth() == mode2.getBitDepth()) &&
(mode1.getRefreshRate() == // & Same Refresh Rate?
DisplayMode.REFRESH_RATE_UNKNOWN ||
mode2.getRefreshRate() ==
DisplayMode.REFRESH_RATE_UNKNOWN ||
mode1.getRefreshRate() == mode2.getRefreshRate());
}Better? I don't think so. Faster? Maybe.
Gary
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I'd probably go for this approach
/**
Determines if two display modes "match". Two display
modes match if they have the same resolution, bit depth,
and refresh rate. The bit depth is ignored if one of the
modes has a bit depth of DisplayMode.BIT_DEPTH_MULTI.
Likewise, the refresh rate is ignored if one of the
modes has a refresh rate of
DisplayMode.REFRESH_RATE_UNKNOWN.
*/
public boolean displayModesMatch(DisplayMode mode1,
DisplayMode mode2)
{
boolean isEqualDimention = (mode1.getWidth() == mode2.getWidth() && mode1.getHeight() == mode2.getHeight());
boolean isEqualDepth = (mode1.getBitDepth() == mode2.getBitDepth());
boolean isEqualRefreshRate = (mode1.getRefreshRate() == mode2.getRefreshRate());return (isEqualDimention && isEqualDepth && isEqualRefreshRate); }I think this is much more readable and much simpler.
All-in-all, I agree with you. I like tidying up the code as well...multiple return statements and complicated ifs do make code less clear. IMHO, however, I'd probably move these into their own methods within a class (let's name it DisplayModeAnalyzer). I would especially do this if these same conditions are used elsewhere in the code...then it could read something like:
public boolean displayModesMatch( DisplayMode mode1,
DisplayMode mode2 )
{
DisplayModeAnalyzer analyzer = new DisplayModeAnalyzer( mode1, mode2 );
boolean result = true;if( analyzer.dimensionsNotEqual() ) result = false; else if( analyzer.depthNotEqual() ) result = false; else if( analyzer.refreshRateNotEqual() ) result = false; return result;}
Breaking it into methods like this increases the amount of code (unless you use these conditions elsewhere) but makes the intent a bit clearer when you scan the code (similar to what you were doing). The DisplayModeAnalyzer class, coded for the above, would also be highly unit-testable. Note, as I think others said...those tests against the constants are very important. I actually like the clarity of your code better than the original, but not the logic...it breaks a fundamental rule of refactoring...NEVER change the logic on existing code. The reason for those constant tests is so that if it's Multi-depth, then even if the depths are equal, that condition would return false. Same for the refresh rate. Kevin
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All-in-all, I agree with you. I like tidying up the code as well...multiple return statements and complicated ifs do make code less clear. IMHO, however, I'd probably move these into their own methods within a class (let's name it DisplayModeAnalyzer). I would especially do this if these same conditions are used elsewhere in the code...then it could read something like:
public boolean displayModesMatch( DisplayMode mode1,
DisplayMode mode2 )
{
DisplayModeAnalyzer analyzer = new DisplayModeAnalyzer( mode1, mode2 );
boolean result = true;if( analyzer.dimensionsNotEqual() ) result = false; else if( analyzer.depthNotEqual() ) result = false; else if( analyzer.refreshRateNotEqual() ) result = false; return result;}
Breaking it into methods like this increases the amount of code (unless you use these conditions elsewhere) but makes the intent a bit clearer when you scan the code (similar to what you were doing). The DisplayModeAnalyzer class, coded for the above, would also be highly unit-testable. Note, as I think others said...those tests against the constants are very important. I actually like the clarity of your code better than the original, but not the logic...it breaks a fundamental rule of refactoring...NEVER change the logic on existing code. The reason for those constant tests is so that if it's Multi-depth, then even if the depths are equal, that condition would return false. Same for the refresh rate. Kevin
if( analyzer.dimensionsNotEqual() )
result = false;look at what ur writing here... i'm not trying to insult you, but that just seems illogical to me.
analyzer.dimensionsNotEqual()this method returns a boolean value, this enabling you to simply write:result = analyzer.dimensionsNotEqual();this was what bothered me the most when i posted the code. The fact that someone tests for a boolean value within a if structure, and then depending on the outcome returns true or false, that seems so strange to me. if the above explanation isn't clear enough i'll explain a bit more below why this is so strange to me. the contents00if(boolean){contents00}else{contents01}are executed when the boolean value is true. when the boolean is false the contents01 are executed. When the only command within the contents00 or contents01 is a command to put a certain value within a boolean variable, you really are testing for no reason. simply take the boolean value within the if structure, remove the if structure and directly put that value within that variable. I believe when you write stuf likeif(boolean00){boolean immaboolean = boolean00}it is called 'False selection' not sure how people call it in english though. Hope i'm making my point clear here ;) -
I'd probably go for this approach
/**
Determines if two display modes "match". Two display
modes match if they have the same resolution, bit depth,
and refresh rate. The bit depth is ignored if one of the
modes has a bit depth of DisplayMode.BIT_DEPTH_MULTI.
Likewise, the refresh rate is ignored if one of the
modes has a refresh rate of
DisplayMode.REFRESH_RATE_UNKNOWN.
*/
public boolean displayModesMatch(DisplayMode mode1,
DisplayMode mode2)
{
boolean isEqualDimention = (mode1.getWidth() == mode2.getWidth() && mode1.getHeight() == mode2.getHeight());
boolean isEqualDepth = (mode1.getBitDepth() == mode2.getBitDepth());
boolean isEqualRefreshRate = (mode1.getRefreshRate() == mode2.getRefreshRate());return (isEqualDimention && isEqualDepth && isEqualRefreshRate); }I think this is much more readable and much simpler.
the code you wrote evaluates every possible scenario and then returns a value.. The original code disqualifies the rest of the code and returns rather than proceeding. What if isEqualDepth takes 3 seconds to run.. every method call would take 3 seconds even when they obviously didnt match after the first if Running every if and returning a combined boolean makes sense for validation but the logic doesnt translate to this situation at all..
DrewG MCSD .Net
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the code you wrote evaluates every possible scenario and then returns a value.. The original code disqualifies the rest of the code and returns rather than proceeding. What if isEqualDepth takes 3 seconds to run.. every method call would take 3 seconds even when they obviously didnt match after the first if Running every if and returning a combined boolean makes sense for validation but the logic doesnt translate to this situation at all..
DrewG MCSD .Net
Are you talking about the variables code or the 1 statement code? When you are talking about the variables code you are right (but like 9999999... people already stated that, and that solution was but a compromise for greater readability) If you are talking about the 1 statement code you are wrong.