Expert Python Programming - Second Edition

Chapter 11. Optimization – General Principles and Profiling Techniques

	"We should forget about small efficiencies, say about 97% of the time: premature optimization is the root of all evil."
	--Donald Knuth

This chapter is about optimization and provides a set of general principles and profiling techniques. It gives the three rules of optimization every developer should be aware of and provides guidelines on optimization. Last, it focuses on how to find bottlenecks.

The three rules of optimization

Optimization has a price, no matter what the results are. When a piece of code works, it might be better (sometimes) to leave it alone than to try making it faster at all costs. There are a few rules to keep in mind when doing any kind of optimization: ...