Expert Python Programming - Second Edition

Chapter 12. Optimization – Some Powerful Techniques

Optimizing a program is not a magical process. It is done by following a simple algorithm, synthesized by Stefan Schwarzer at Europython 2006 in his original pseudocode example:

def optimize():
    """Recommended optimization"""
    assert got_architecture_right(), "fix architecture"
    assert made_code_work(bugs=None), "fix bugs"
    while code_is_too_slow():
        wbn = find_worst_bottleneck(just_guess=False,
                                    profile=True)
        is_faster = try_to_optimize(wbn,
                                    run_unit_tests=True,
                                    new_bugs=None)
        if not is_faster:
            undo_last_code_change()

# By Stefan Schwarzer, Europython 2006

This example probably isn't the neatest and clearest one but captures pretty much all the important aspects of an organized optimization procedure. ...