Here is a thesis:

There are two sorts of languages: languages where writing your own codeis (usually) almost as fast as using the builtin features, and languageswhere the builtins are an order of magnitude faster than doing the samework in your own code.

C is an example of the first sort of language; it is merely silly, notlaughably absurd, to reimplement your own version of strchr() . Pythonis an example of the second sort of language; it's utterly stupid towrite

Here is something that I do not understand: why is it always that theoldest and most clapped-out set of displays that you have is always tobe found in the machine room, barely working at the best of time?

Yes, I can see the surface logic; machine room displays are probablyyour least used displays and they spend a great deal of time doingnothing. But every so often you have a crisis and then you really needthem to work, because in a crisis the last thing you have