Performance or Readability?

Question

Which is more important, performance or readability?

Answer 1

In my opinion, performance should be the first priority, because the user does not care about how readable the code is, but still needs performance in the product they are using. For example, even though python codes are much more readable, still C++ is much more preferred in things like making games, browsers etc.

Also, it is possible to write readable as well as efficient code at the same time. Readability is a thing that does not affect the performance of the program (for example, just because C++ is less readable than Python, doesn't mean you can't write readable code in C++). So a programmer should aim to write code which is good in readability as well performance.

Answer 2

In my opinion, nowadays, when even phones have powerful CPU's and at least 4GB of Ram, readability is first priority. Any fool can write code that a computer will understand, but it is more important to make code understandable for other developers and for yourself.

Answer 3

Readability makes a system easier to maintain and therefore brings down cost of the software over its life. There are cases where performance is more important the readability, that said they are few and far between.

Answer 4

Both are important but in my personal opinion readability is more important

Answer 5

Performance is more important. You can always use comments to improve readability.

Answer 6

Wow, thanks bro