Making diff fast (was Re: Some notes on distributed SCM)

[Daniel Phillips]

On Sunday 10 April 2005 19:27, Aaron Bentley wrote:
> Daniel Phillips wrote:
> >Somebody wrote:
> >>If we can find ways to make operations O(changed files), then we avoid
> >>penalizing people with large projects.
> >>
> >>If subsecond is the common case, that's great.  Otherwise, I really do
> >>believe there's room for improvement.
> >
> > The point that has been made several times already is: we should not get
> > hung up on premature micro-optimization.  There are several crucial
> > algorithms that need to be put in place and functioning reliably within a
> > month.  Though all algorithms have to work within tolerable speeds,
> > warming the dcache at 5 seconds once a day just does not move the needle.
> >  Shaving this down isn't worth a diversion at this point, there are
> > bigger fish to fry.
>
> No need to rant.  I agree there are bigger fish to fry.  At the same
> time, I think we'll want to revisit this at some point, and having an
> idea of what we'll to do can't hurt.

True, dat.  The inotify approach has a lot of promise.  I should now go audit 
the inotify patch With this in mind, for the future as you say.

Daniel