I read somewhere before that you should only ever optimise code during development if it produces a ten fold performance gain and that during maintainance optimisation should be done if it provides a two-fold increase in performance.
It’s likely that I read it in some eXtreme Programming book as this is the kind of gross generalisations that XP practitioners make (thought they generally have a large grain of truth). However, I can’t find or remember the reference to the paraphrased quote. If anyone on planet MiNDS> or in the general blogsphere could remember the source I’d be greatful.
Joel spolsky?