Faraday cages ( was Re: staticy plastic tubs )

[Jim Leonard]

Sridhar Ayengar wrote:
> Jim Leonard wrote:
>> Sridhar Ayengar wrote:
>>> Jim Leonard wrote:
>>>> I call serious BS on the statement "some interpreters were faster 
>>>> than some compilers".  People are going to have to back that up with 
>>>> actual examples before it becomes believable.
>>>
>>> Microsoft QuickBASIC 4.5.  Try it with "Gorillas".
>>
>> And what interpreter?
> 
> QuickBASIC 4.5.  Compiled programs compiled by QuickBASIC 4.5 is slower 
> than interpreted programs run under the QuickBASIC 4.5 interpreter.

I don't have 4.5 but I do have 4.0 so that's what I used and it was 
substantially faster compiled, particularly in the graphics routines.

I wasn't sure how I was supposed to use a game as a benchmark, so I did 
my own test anyway:  I took QB 4.0 on my 5160 and altered SORTDEMO.BAS 
to force a uniform reverse-sorted list and remove all arbitrary delays, 
and then ran the Exchange Sort demo (has the least amount of screen 
drawing; see later).  Here are the times in seconds:

QB 4.0, interpreted (not really, it's p-code): 7.141
QB 4.0 compiled, runtime linked in: 6.320
MS-DOS Qbasic 1.1: 9.551

MSDOS Qbasic 1.1 may have had an unfair disadvantage because it had 
slower screen draw routines than the others, but all of the sorts that 
didn't rely on random variables (insertion, bubble, exchange, shell) 
across the board showed that the compiled version was faster by a small 
margin.
-- 
Jim Leonard (trixter at oldskool.org)            http://www.oldskool.org/
Help our electronic games project:           http://www.mobygames.com/
Or check out some trippy MindCandy at     http://www.mindcandydvd.com/
A child borne of the home computer wars: http://trixter.wordpress.com/