programming-for-dummies

102
Saving Time with Third-Party Components
Saving Time with Third-Party Components
Programmers are naturally lazy and often look for the simplest way to solve
any problem. So when faced with creating a program, programmers prefer to
cheat by using third-party components, which are programs that somebody
else has created already (and hopefully tested).
Third-party components usually offer commonly needed features, such as a
word processor, a spreadsheet, or a database, that you can plug into your
own program. So instead of having to write your own word processor, you
can buy a word processor component and plug it into your own program;
now your program has word processing capabilities with little additional
programming on your part.
Third-party components can give your program instant features, but they can
also give you instant problems, too. If the third-party component doesn’t work
right, your program won’t work right either and you can’t fix the problem until
the company that sells the third-party component fixes the problem. Basically,
third-party components put you at the mercy of another company. If that other
company stops updating and improving their component, you’re stuck with an
outdated and possibly buggy component.
Depending on the features, third-party components can range in cost from a
few hundred dollars to a few thousand dollars or more. Most third-party
components aren’t cheap, but because they can save you a lot of time, they
may be worth the price.
Optimizing a Program with a Profiler
Not all parts of a program are equal. Some parts of a program may only run
once or twice, whereas other parts of a program may run hundreds or even
thousands of times. For example, suppose you have a program that stores
names and addresses. To use this program, you must first type in your name
and password before you can sort and search through the program’s list of
names and addresses.
In this example, the part of the program that asks for a username and password
runs only once, but the part of the program that searches and sorts
through your list of names and addresses may run multiple times. So which
part of your program determines its speed? The part that runs once (asking
for a username and password) or the part that runs multiple times (searching
and sorting names and addresses)?