Re: Data Storage Issue (Basic Issue)

Tom Anderson wrote:
> If someone (credible) told me that there was a five-to-one difference in

> times for an ArrayList.get and an array[], then, if we were in a context

> where performance was im****tant, i certainly would take that as kind of 
> damning for collections. I think that's perfectly reasonable.

Eric is correct that you should not generalize from a single data point, 
especially when full details are not available for that one case.  I
presented 
the anecdote not to prove anything but to provide evidence, at least that
the 
matter is worth pursuing more objectively.

My comment that I lack credibility was not about personality but about 
evidence and what makes it valid.  I provided no hard data, nor enough 
information about the anecdote to make it something on which you can base 
conclusions.  By hard standards, I indeed do lack credibility to assert
that 
direct-to-disk is five times faster.  OTOH, it is enough to share one 
experience that indicates that the claim is potentially sup****table, just
maybe.

I agree with Eric that one should not carry any anecdote farther than it
can 
carry you.

-- 
Lew