History
The first machines that were capable of computation were severely limited by purely mechanical considerations. As later electronic machines were developed they were, in turn, limited by the speed of their electronic counterparts. As software replaced hard-wired circuits, the efficiency of algorithms remained important. It has long been recognized that the precise 'arrangement of processes' is critical in reducing elapsed time.
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"In almost every computation a great variety of arrangements for the succession of the processes is possible, and various considerations must influence the selections amongst them for the purposes of a calculating engine. One essential object is to choose that arrangement which shall tend to reduce to a minimum the time necessary for completing the calculation"
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- Ada Lovelace 1815–1852, generally considered as 'the first programmer' who worked on Charles Babbage's early mechanical general-purpose computer
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"In established engineering disciplines a 12% improvement, easily obtained, is never considered marginal and I believe the same viewpoint should prevail in software engineering"
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- Extract from "Structured Programming with go to Statements" by Donald Knuth, renowned computer scientist, Professor Emeritus and author of the Art of Computer Programming at Stanford University.
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"The key to performance is elegance, not battalions of special cases"
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- attributed to Jon Bentley and (Malcolm) Douglas McIlroy
Read more about this topic: Algorithmic Efficiency
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“The principle office of history I take to be this: to prevent virtuous actions from being forgotten, and that evil words and deeds should fear an infamous reputation with posterity.”
—Tacitus (c. 55–117)
“So in accepting the leading of the sentiments, it is not what we believe concerning the immortality of the soul, or the like, but the universal impulse to believe, that is the material circumstance, and is the principal fact in this history of the globe.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“I am ashamed to see what a shallow village tale our so-called History is. How many times must we say Rome, and Paris, and Constantinople! What does Rome know of rat and lizard? What are Olympiads and Consulates to these neighboring systems of being? Nay, what food or experience or succor have they for the Esquimaux seal-hunter, or the Kanaka in his canoe, for the fisherman, the stevedore, the porter?”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)