Talk:Hot spot (computer programming)

I'm not sure where this should be pointed out, but hot spots are not always performance problems, and vice versa. An example would be an O(N^2) algorithm that happened to invoke a lengthy call tree in its inner loop. There might or might not be a hot spot at the bottom of the call tree, but the problem is at mid-stack. Samples of the program counter would not show it, but samples of the call stack would. In my experience, the larger the software is, the more prevalent are such mid-stack performance problems. MikeDunlavey (talk) 23:18, 18 May 2009 (UTC)