[Shootout-list] What people say about shootout

[skaller]

On Fri, 2005-04-29 at 23:38, Sebastien Loisel wrote:

> The problem I faced in implicitode is that a large fraction of
> languages don't even have a single precision data type (e.g., python.)

Indeed.

> A possible test would be one that does a matrix-vector multiplication,
> where the sizes are tuned so that the matrix will fit in cache if
> floats are used, but not if doubles are used. This way, languages that
> fake floats using doubles will actually get penalized. However, the
> interest is to write tests that work in all language, 

NOT MINE! On the contrary, there should be tests that FAIL
for some or even most languages. One such 'feature test'
already exists (plugin) and several others fit that category
too (threads). One can argue about exceptions and other
features as well.

> The biggest problem is that it's very hard to guess what size matrix
> will fit in cache, because cache size varies widely across cpu's.

Just push N up, and watch the performance of the double-languages 
drop suddenly when the cache spills, whilst the 
single-language will lose performance a bit later. Perhaps .. :)


-- 
John Skaller, mailto:skaller@users.sf.net
voice: 061-2-9660-0850, 
snail: PO BOX 401 Glebe NSW 2037 Australia
Checkout the Felix programming language http://felix.sf.net