[Shootout-list] commercial benchmarks

[Brandon J. Van Every]

Isaac Gouy wrote:
> Brandon Van Every wrote:
>
> > The *MAIN BENCHMARK* should only test the least common
> > denominator of
> > all languages.  It cannot, for instance, mandate garbage
> > collection. 3rd generation capabilities, i.e. like C, are the only
> > things all of the languages have in common.
>
> Brandon, simply declare a new industry standard *MAIN BENCHMARK* as
> tests x,y,z and publish.

To pursue the marketing agenda I think proper, I may very well have to
do that.  I'm not convinced that you, or other parties here, have much
interest in professional quality, commercially viable benchmarks.  A lot
of things need to happen to make a benchmark visible and important to
PHBs.  I'm not sensing any basic will - or even basic understanding -
around here about how to take that on.  I think the Shootout is likely
to remain 'hacker ken'.  It may convert some guys who play with
languages in their spare time... it's not going to persuade anybody to
change their business model.

> > never done anything as loosey-goosey as leave the scoring system up
> > to the person running it.
>
> Could that be because they make money from defining and measuring
> benchmarks?

Yes, everyone in the OpenGL ARB has a financial stake in the results of
the benchmarks.  This is a big difference between professionals and
hackers.  For my part, I'm interested in job creation with these various
unpopular languages.  Otherwise the PHBs tyrranize us with C++, Java,
and C# forever.  I want to make lotsa money as a consultant using
languages that I prefer, that are better suited to task.  That's my own
financial stake.  You may say "well just go do it then" but that is
naive, considering how much mindshare C++, Java, and C# actually have.

If commercial concerns are not likely to be incorporated into the
Shootout, then I'll bow out and not worry about how the Shootout
evolves.  For all I know, someone on comp.benchmark may have a better
marketing framework to suggest.  On the other hand, if someone else
around here has similar concerns, now would be a good time to chime in.


Cheers,                         www.indiegamedesign.com
Brandon Van Every               Seattle, WA

"We live in a world of very bright people building
crappy software with total shit for tools and process."
                                - Ed McKenzie