Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!sri-unix!quintus!ok
From: ok@quintus.UUCP (Richard A. O'Keefe)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.prolog
Subject: Re: Evan's puzzle
Message-ID: <755@cresswell.quintus.UUCP>
Date: 11 Mar 88 06:01:54 GMT
References: <1703@sics.se>
Organization: Quintus Computer Systems, Mountain View, CA
Lines: 16
Summary: clarification please

In article <1703@sics.se>, seif@sics.se (Seif Haridi) writes:
> Of course I was using the original Prolog program written by Evan.
> The results are as follows:
> 
> 1. Quintus Prolog compiled in 14 seconds
> 2. The FIRST SURPRISE: SICStus Prolog compiled in 10 seconds
> 
Clarification please:  do you really mean "compiled" or did you mean
"executed"?  While the time it takes to compile something is of very great
practical interest, that's not the point of this particular example.

A general note:  a few easy measurements will show you that a large chunk of
the time it takes Quintus Prolog to compile a file actually goes into reading
the characters.  This is due to Quintus Prolog's support of user-defined
streams.  If SICStus Prolog doesn't support user-defined streams, the result
ceases to be surprising.  (Not that we don't find such results motivating!)