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From: bmug@garnet.berkeley.edu (BMUG)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.apps
Subject: Re: Any users of 4D compiler?
Message-ID: <1990Oct5.150511.14473@agate.berkeley.edu>
Date: 5 Oct 90 15:05:11 GMT
References: <2299@gould.doc.ic.ac.uk>
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In article <2299@gould.doc.ic.ac.uk> nd@doc.ic.ac.uk (N Dulay) writes:
>I would interested to learn whether anyone has used ACI's new 4th Dimension
>Compiler on their existing 4th Dimension databases. And if so, how much
>improvement they have noticed?
>

I've spent some time with the compiler, and in general it's a good (though
expensive) complement to 4th Dimension.

Depending on what your particular database application does, it can make
a minor or major difference in speed.  For apps which are almost all
disk I/O intensive, little or no difference.  For those which use a lot
of calculations, iterative structures, looping, or other interpreter-
heavy operations, the increase in speed can be amazing.  If you have
access to MacWEEK, check out the October 1st issue, which has a review
of the compiler and fairly typical, "real world" tests.

A less obvious use for the compiler is its debugger, which will catch
things the source-level debugger in 4D's interpreter doesn't.  The
interpreter can live with a certain amount of programming ambiguity;
the compiler (because it's reducing the interpreted code to machine
code) can't.  Using the compiler can train you to be a more careful
programmer by catching sloppy techniques.

John Heckendorn
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