Should programmers have fast computers?

It all started from Jeff Atwood's Coding Horror blog entry on The Programmer's Bill of Rights...

I couldn't agree more at first. Until I finished reading the comments. There were some fierce debates on whether a programmer should be equipped with fast computers..

(Like what Suki asked, what good points are there to support such claims?)

Many of the commenters said that by having fast machines we tend to code freely and do not keep in mind efficiency and the scale of the program, thus resulting in the implementation of codes that will run smoothly on faster machine, and will take donkey years to start on a slower machine.

In short, we need to use slower machine to write codes that are compatible with slow machines.


At first many (including me) thought that this idea was purely idiotic, who doesn't prefer a faster computer and compile your program in a breeze? But then as I think through the whole idea slowly again, the idea is actually quite true.




Hahahaha, also, found this quote on one of the comment, which reflects quite well my life at work recently..
"A lack of planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part."



Directed to SBTL of course :)