Premature optimization modifies code for presumed performance gains before establishing that the gains are relevant and necessary. In C, clever performance changes can harm readability, soundness, maintainability, and safety. TAKEAWAY: Do not trade off safety for performance. section 15.0
Prefer simple safeguards before attempting clever optimization:
- Initialize every block-scope variable. section 15.0
- Use calloc instead of malloc where suitable to reduce uninitialized-object problems. section 15.0
- Provide initialization functions for more complicated dynamically allocated data structures. section 15.0
