Re: When a hashed pathname is deleted, search PATH

[Linda Walsh]

Chris Down wrote:
> You don't use heuristics when you have access to the underlying
> mechanisms, that's an extremely poor way to program, and an extremely
> good way to accrue technical debt.
--

Mike Frysinger wrote:
> as soon as you talk about trying to time something, you're obviously looking 
> at it wrong.  having a system that only works when the cpu/disk is fast and 
> idle is a waste of time and bad for everyone.
---

BTW -- as far as using heuristics and timing and whether or not that
is "bad", you might check to see how the the linux kernel is written.
As an example, I saw this today: 
http://oss.sgi.com/pipermail/xfs/2014-March/034977.html

It talks about using a speculative heuristic with a timing window
to trim speculation.  I've seen other similar algorithms in the kernel
as well.

Using heuristics and timing to adapt to external behaviors is an
advanced programming method -- the key is knowing when to use it.
It really is entering into the realm of AI programming.