Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!ut-sally!utah-cs!defun.utah.edu!shebs
From: shebs%defun.utah.edu.uucp@utah-cs.UUCP (Stanley T. Shebs)
Newsgroups: comp.software-eng
Subject: Re: A Cynic's Guide, part 1
Message-ID: <5346@utah-cs.UUCP>
Date: 13 Mar 88 17:22:44 GMT
References: <2541@Shasta.STANFORD.EDU> <5313@utah-cs.UUCP> <5019@venera.isi.edu>
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Reply-To: shebs%defun.utah.edu.UUCP@utah-cs.UUCP (Stanley T. Shebs)
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In article <5019@venera.isi.edu> raveling@vaxa.isi.edu (Paul Raveling) writes:

>	Now I see lots of software being put together with minimum
>	implementation time as its sole goal.  Yes, we have lots
>	of uncommented Lisp.  The benchmarks show it runs about
>	3 times slower than C, which is about 3 times slower than
>	machine language.

I've said it before in other newsgroups - there's no technical reason for
Lisp programs to be any slower than machine language.  Near-optimal compiler
output has been demonstrated many times, but only on small benchmarks, and
the results on larger programs can be as bad as you say.  Nevertheless,
efficient compilation of realistic programs seems to have been decreed to
be "non-research" therefore unfundable, and Lisp companies have been trying
to get better compilers, while losing sales because their stopgap releases
have shabby performance.  It's pretty frustrating to see higher-level 
languages losing out to C++, not because of inherent defects, but because
available systems fail to deliver adequate speed and space performance.

>       All that runs over an operating system,
>	Unix, which switches contexts an order of magnitude slower
>	than some other systems.
>
>	... and one of us (not me) wonders why his "high-tech"
>	workstation has worse response time than his PC at home.

This is the first I've heard of Unix being accused of slowing workstations
to sub-PC levels!  Certainly doesn't correspond to my experience, where I've
given up on PCs completely because they're just too excruciatingly slow to use,
compared to the HP 350 on my desk...

							stan shebs
							shebs@cs.utah.edu