[hliyan]

I think this comment is an artifact of its time, kind of like Knuth's "premature optimization" or Spolky's "never, ever rewrite from scratch". They are mostly valid under the circumstances the author uttered them, but by no means universally applicable, and certainly not to be turned into religious commandments.

P.S. any engineer who counters my request to take perf into consideration with "premature optimization is the root of all evil" is immediately asked to complete the remainder of the quote. Failing to do so usually results in me ejecting the person from the meeting!