Path: utzoo!censor!geac!maccs!cs4g6ag
From: cs4g6ag@maccs.dcss.mcmaster.ca (Stephen M. Dunn)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: Casting Stones
Keywords: whetstone dhrystone
Message-ID: <25BAAA80.12762@maccs.dcss.mcmaster.ca>
Date: 22 Jan 90 06:38:56 GMT
References: <1990Jan19.225828.24382@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu>
Reply-To: cs4g6ag@maccs.dcss.mcmaster.ca (Stephen M. Dunn)
Organization: McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario
Lines: 26

In article <1990Jan19.225828.24382@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu> wang@cs.uiuc.edu (Eric Wang) writes:
$    a) What's a whetstone?
$    b) What's a dhrystone?
$    c) Why are they so named?

   Well, there are probably several different stories on these names, but
here's what I've heard:

   What's a whetstone in non-computer terms?  It's something you use to
sharpen your tools, right?  Well, the whetstone benchmark was originally
created in order to help compiler writer sharpen their "tools" - the
compilers they were designing.  It is supposed to allow you to figure
out how good a job you're doing of producing a compiler that spits out
efficient code.

   As for dhrystones, well, you know what computer people have in the way of
a sense of humour - a very warped one.  Someone noticed that you could
replace the w, e and t at the start of "whetstone" with d, r and y ... so
they did.  There are other ?h*stone benchmarks, mostly just names with
comical definitions, but some (such as the dhampstone) do actually
exist and perform useful functions.
-- 
Stephen M. Dunn                               cs4g6ag@maccs.dcss.mcmaster.ca
          <std_disclaimer.h> = "\nI'm only an undergraduate!!!\n";
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       "I want to look at life - In the available light" - Neil Peart