Algebraic expressions make me mad

[Guy Steele - Sun Microsystems Labs <address@hidden>]

Despite the fact that many folks I respect swear by algebraic
expressions, I've yet to feel comfortable with them in a language.
Since LL2, I've been trying to figure out what my resistance is based
on.

Let me say that I think that algebraic expressions are beautiful and
powerful and all those good things.  Let's not quibble about that.

When you write an algebraic expression, it hides what's really going on.
You just never know what sort of code the compiler is going to produce.
Sometimes it even runs out of registers and has to generate extra
loads and stores, and the compiler never even tells you how badly your
performance is going to suffer.

No, if you really want to be able to see what's going on, you have to
write in assembly language.  No exceptions.

Guy