It can certainly be argued that European exploration was a good thing for Europeans. Exploration contributed to rapid and profound economic expansion by pumping massive amounts of wealth into the European economy. The influx of new crops like potatoes and corn contributed to rapid population growth and longer lifespans for European peoples. The knowledge and contact with other peoples gained through exploration was arguably instrumental in the so-called Scientific Revolution and the Enlightenment. But whatever gains were made by Europeans must be balanced against the almost inconceivable costs borne by millions of Native and African peoples. Native Americans suffered staggering population losses (perhaps as high as 90% of their pre-contact numbers) due to contact with European disease. Contact with Europeans also set a process in motion by which virtually all indigenous Americans were driven from their lands. European exploration also created the Atlantic slave trade, which saw millions of African people kidnapped and sold into slavery in the Americas. So if exploration was "good" for Europeans, it was disastrous for many ordinary West African people and for almost all Native Americans.
As a software engineer, I need to sometimes describe a piece of code as something that lacks performance or was not written with performance in mind. Example: This kind of coding style leads to unmaintainable and unperformant code. Based on my Google searches, this isn't a real word. What is the correct way to describe this? EDIT My usage of "performance" here is in regard to speed and efficiency. For example, the better the performance of code the faster the application runs. My question and example target the negative definition, which is in reference to preventing inefficient coding practices. Answer This kind of coding style leads to unmaintainable and unperformant code. In my opinion, reads more easily as: This coding style leads to unmaintainable and poorly performing code. The key to well-written documentation and reports lies in ease of understanding. Adding poorly understood words such as performant decreases that ease. In addressing the use of such a poorly ...
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