Question

I'm not new to programming. I've been doing it for years.

And thats why I'm asking this.

Why the hell do people use the term "efficiency" without even knowing what it entails?

It's like those Socket.io fans. Woot, its a miracle. So much faster. Long-pull AJAX requests: go to hell.
They toss that term around, they believe it because they hear it. But ya know?

When you actually look at the statistics (no, not just word-of-mouth) when you ACTUALLY, REALLY glace at the statistics the difference is negligible at best.

It's also like those PHP haters: PHP is not slow at all for low-volume sites !

The worst thing is that they're so egotistical about it all >_>

Answer 1

I would not call Facebook a low volume site and it does not seem particularly slow. It is also done in PHP.

Answer 2

Yes, but it *is* compiled into C.

Answer 3

PHP is a server side scripting language that is compiled into a byte code. Facebook uses HipHop, which compiles the PHP script into C++ to reduce the server load.

Answer 4

I know.
My point is that it just irritates me when people toss around words like "efficiency" for something that isn't much slower.

Answer 5

Perhaps it is just a matter of perspective. The variations of RAM chips over the years have had their increased efficiency measured in nano seconds. Hard to say exactly which perspective the individual is using when they make statements like the ones you speak of.
It could be that they are using a measure of minutes and thus an increase of seconds is a big jump in efficiency. :D

Answer 6

Also, efficiency does not mean it is faster. There are generally two ways of programming for efficiency. One is for speed but the other is for resource conservation. They can be mutually exclusive at times. Then there is efficiency for some platforms where the goal is to make it consume less energy, which is generally a concern on low power devices that run off of batteries. The actual use depends on the goal, so without a more comprehensive list of how something is more efficient, and at what tradeoff, any claim to efficiency is basically incomplete.