Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!bonnie.concordia.ca!uunet!mcsun!unido!uklirb!shell
From: acha@CS.CMU.EDU (Anurag Acharya)
Newsgroups: comp.ai.shells
Subject: Re: Performance tests
Message-ID: <7463@uklirb.informatik.uni-kl.de>
Date: 10 Jan 91 18:20:45 GMT
References: <7441@uklirb.informatik.uni-kl.de>
Sender: shell@uklirb.informatik.uni-kl.de
Organization: Carnegie Mellon University
Lines: 45
Approved: shell@informatik.uni-kl.de
Posted-Date: Wed Jan 16 08:05:57 GMT 1991
In-reply-to: dowless@sae.sae.com's message of 9 Jan 91 14:27:42 GMT

In article <7441@uklirb.informatik.uni-kl.de> dowless@sae.sae.com (Alan Dowless) writes:
> I'm sending you the comparable knowledge base that I
> I ran with KES 3.0 on a SUN Sparc 1.  This knowledge
> base simply fires "init rule" 30000 in 23 seconds.
> This calculates to: 78260 rule firings per minute.
> Thanks, Alan
>  attributes:
>  f:int.
>  y:int [default: 30000].
>  %
>  rules:
>  init rule:
>  if true then
>  reassert f=1.
>  endif.
>   %
>   actions:
>      while y # 0 do 
>	obtain f.
>	erase f.
>	reassert y= y-1.
>      endwhile.
>   %

This particular benchmark means almost nothing. The task is so simple 
that it can be coded in languages with a wide range of expressiveness.
And it bears no similarity to the sort of programs that will eventually
be written/run on the system. The primary characteristic of production
system languages (call them shell languages if you will) is their 
pattern matching power. This benchmark makes no attempt to exercise it
in any way.

In this case, the comparison is between a single rule firing 30000 times 
(from the original post on CLIPS) and a single rule causing a C-like loop 
to be executed 30000 times (in this example). 

There are a set of production system languages (like the one used in the 
example), whose working memory consists of a set of variables declared at 
the top of the program and the match conditions consist of C-like predicate 
tests on the values of these variables. The pattern-matching power of such 
languages is puny compared to that of OPS5, OPS83, CLIPS and similar languages.
Such languages are little more than syntactically sugared versions of C-like 
languages. 

anurag