A Rust word-cloud generator was sped up from 100 ms to 16 ms for no real reason

minimaxir · x · 2026-07-23

The screenshot shows a Hacker News comment about a Rust word-cloud generator that was initially fast at around 100 ms and was then optimized down to about 16 ms. The author admits the world does not need a super-fast word-cloud generator, but says that if he has one, it should be as fast as possible.

It’s a small example of performance-obsessed engineering: unnecessary in a practical sense, but satisfying to build and optimize.

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