[saranagati]

"Unfortunately, I only know how to design something that works, I don't know how to fake a bad design"

I was once given an interview project where they wanted to see how I did with their current code structure. They gave me this really horrible template of data that could never be used in the real world or for anything other than this project. I decided to restructure the template so I could make a useable application for it. After turning it in they were astonished that I reformatted it to look exactly like their production data and code.

The problem was that they didn't like that I didn't use certain basic function like require_once, autoloading or something else which i forget (this was in php). Instead I used c style programming in php which ends up being faster. They chastised me for not using the builtin php functions because they assumed they must be better and didn't hire me. The company (well whoever the recruiter worked for) sayed in the email that I just wasn't the right fit because I wasn't up to the skill level of the guy giving me the test and they needed someone "that good" because they were way behind on their deadline. I sent them an email back basically saying that they're retarded (in a MUCH nicer way of course) and showed them some benchmark results I made comparing the different ways of doing it (which showed my methods as being much more efficient).

[ceejayoz]

> Instead I used c style programming in php which ends up being faster.

Faster in performance, or faster to develop and maintain?

Most PHP apps I've come across have little need for CPU optimization. Not using built-in functions in those situations is likely to have no practical benefit except making it harder for other PHP devs to work with the code.

[saranagati]

actually easier to maintain and faster in performance. For example, instead of doing require_once() doing a

if ( ! defined('SOMEINCLUDE')) require('file.php');

then defining SOMEINCLUDE in file.php.

Only saves 3% if i remember correctly but when you're including a hundred includes it adds up and when your site is spread across 30+ load balanced web servers every bit counts. As far as it being easier to maintain, it's easier to debug this way if something goes wrong.

However for things where you've gotta build some huge function (or any function really that's more than a line or 2) to replace a built in for such a small gain in performance I would agree with you.

[zerd]

PHP leads to premature optimization. The root of the root of all evil.