Re: Current dylan speed.

[Bruce Hoult <address@hidden>]

In article <419316d4.0203131636.22562e00@posting.google.com>,
 mnoconnor@hotmail.com (Matthew O'Connor) wrote:

> Hello everyone,
> 
> I was wondering what the current speed 
> of Dylan was compared to C++?
> 
> The downloadable manuals indicate a
> half to a third. These documents were
> produced in 1994. Is this still the 
> case.

I think that for any particular case you care about, you can make the 
difference arbitrarily small, by doing sufficient work.

Writing and debugging the Dylan program that is half to a third the 
speed of the C++ one is likely to take a *lot* less time than writing 
and debugging the C++ one.  Some of the spare time thus created can be 
applied to profiling and optimizing the Dylan program or using a better 
algorithm in critical places.  If the speed wasn't "good enough" in the 
first place, that is.


I suggest you take a look at things such as the ICFP programming 
contests, which emphasise developing and debugging complex algorithms in 
a short time.  The fastest *correct* program wins.

-- Bruce