Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Path: utzoo!mnetor!seismo!rutgers!umnd-cs!umn-cs!herndon
From: herndon@umn-cs.UUCP (Robert Herndon)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: Re: 
Message-ID: <1711@umn-cs.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 6-Jul-87 20:47:28 EDT
Article-I.D.: umn-cs.1711
Posted: Mon Jul  6 20:47:28 1987
Date-Received: Wed, 8-Jul-87 01:39:15 EDT
References: <8011@brl-adm.ARPA>
Organization: University of Minnesota, Minneapolis
Lines: 16
Summary: This makes a considerable difference!

In article <8011@brl-adm.ARPA>, Alan_Cote.DlosLV-Comm@Xerox.COM writes:
> >Henry Spencer  suggests (assuming a and b have
> >no side effects)
> >>#define    STREQ(a, b)    (*(a) == *(b) && strcmp((a), (b)) == 0)
> >>This makes a considerable speed difference in programs that use strings
> >>a lot, since string comparisons usually fail on the very first character.
  This will also greatly slow a good many programs down on machines
that do not support byte addressing.  Unless there are good reasons
to do this for a particular application, restraint should be used
in applying this "optimization".  Like many other optimizations, this
is a pessimization for many machines.
-- 
Robert Herndon				Dept. of Computer Science,
...!ihnp4!umn-cs!herndon		Univ. of Minnesota,
herndon@umn-cs.ARPA			136 Lind Hall, 207 Church St. SE
herndon.umn-cs@csnet-relay.ARPA		Minneapolis, MN  55455