On Wed, Sep 10, 2003 at 04:52:30PM -0700, Phil Carmody wrote: > --- Ala Qumsieh <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > http://www.bagley.org/~doug/shootout/bench/regexmatch/regexmatch.perl > > > ? > > > > I couldn't understand what's the purpose of the > > shootout? Performance? Character count? > > Their purpose was performance. Perl was a bit far down the list of results, > IMHO. However, I thought that it should all be squeezed onto one line at the > same time as making it faster through regexp trickery perhaps. > For example, it took half a second of thought to work out how to double > the speed of the "hash" perl program, for example, so they've really not > ever tried to make the perl fast. Shameful distrespect for the language! >
"For this test, each program should be implemented in the same way." http://www.bagley.org/~doug/shootout/method.shtml#sameway Tests That Call For Implementations To Be Written The Same Way For some tests, I will specify that they be written using the same logic and data structures. The goal of this kind of test is to try to measure languages doing the same operations, as closely as possible. (Since functional languages have such a different mode of expression, I allow them more leeway). I find this kind of test useful when I am considering questions like "Is array subscripting faster in Perl or Python?", or "Are hash table insert/lookup operations faster in Tcl or Ruby?". An example of this kind is the Sieve of Eratosthenes test. Since the purpose of the same way tests is to try to compare, side by side, the same kind of operation in one language as in another, they often use code that is naive and unidiomatic by design. Ronald
