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From: paulr@syma.sussex.ac.uk (Paul T Russell)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.apps
Subject: Re: Any users of 4D compiler?
Message-ID: <3569@syma.sussex.ac.uk>
Date: 5 Oct 90 11:05:41 GMT
References: <2299@gould.doc.ic.ac.uk>
Organization: University of Sussex
Lines: 26

From article <2299@gould.doc.ic.ac.uk>, by nd@doc.ic.ac.uk (N Dulay):
> 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?

The compiler only really speeds up scripts and procedures. If your
database is mostly automatic (ie. using 4D's default behaviour) then
you won't see much improvement. If you spend a lot of time interpreting
long and/or complex procedures then you will get a considerable speed
increase (an order of magnitude or thereabouts). To squeeze the
maximum performance out of the compiled version you need to
declare all your string and integer variables (otherwise they
will default to the (slower) text and real types). This applies
to procedure parameters and function results too. It took me
about a day to get one of my systems 'compiler-ready' and then
a little more time to debug a few minor run-time problems.
The best speed improvement I have seen is x 50 on a particularly
long-winded procedure...

//Paul

-- 
           Paul Russell, Department of Experimental Psychology
         University of Sussex, Falmer, Brighton BN1 9QG, England
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