[Shootout-list] preserving historical data

[Brandon J. Van Every]

Bengt Kleberg wrote:
>
> why should that be possible to relate to other versions of (other?)
> languages on other hardware/os platforms?

Some HW+OS platforms are sufficiently similar to make comparisons.  For
instance, I feel comfortable comparing the performance of any 2 Intel
boxes on Windows 2000 and Windows XP.  For a lot of kinds of tests, it's
not going to be that different.

> > Who said g++ is no longer supported?  Yet it has changed
> over the years.
>
> why do you care about the realtive performance of g++ today
> versus g++ of yesterday?

Because someone's using an older g++ for something somewhere.  Also
people argue about whether such-and-such compiler optimization does any
good, and I think historical data on such things is relevant to the
argument.  Also to see trends in business models: is Microsoft
bullshitting us about how they improved their compiler with each
release?  FWIW my tests of VC6, VC7, and VC7.1 have never revealed any
difference in code output.  Is GNU any better, for that matter?

> and if you are interested, why not add an old g++ version
> to the shootout?

I would if I had a political reason to do so.  I don't presently.  I
just don't see why you think old data should be thrown away.  It's a lot
of work to acquire such data, and it isn't expensive to archive.  If the
scoring system enables long-term historical comparisons, I see that as
beneficial to both academic research and business marketing.

I think you underestimate the degree to which people form impressions
about things based on their experiences of several years ago, rather
than what's true today.  It's better to be able to say, "No, look, that
was true 4 years ago when you last looked at it.  Here's the data."
People are still arguing about DirectX 3.1 vs. DirectX 5, and that was 6
years ago.  It's a major historical point in the whole DirectX vs.
OpenGL debate.


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

"The pioneer is the one with the arrows in his back."
                          - anonymous entrepreneur