[Shootout-list] Directions of various benchmarks

[Bengt Kleberg]

Jon Harrop wrote:
...deleted
> Yes, of course. Measuring more "n" would be better but it will never be ideal. 
> We just have to do the best we can.

my problem with the current shootout is that we are _not_ doing the best 
we can. we limit ''n'' to a very small amount, and the only argument for 
this behaviour is that ''The Computer Language Shootout has a very 
narrow focus.''
to me that argument does not even make sense. since everybody else is 
not protesting (much) i suppose you all understanmd it. an explanation 
would be wellcome.


...deleted

> I'm for counting all lines with any code on. My justification for counting 
> lines with a single brace in C-like languages is that this part of the 
> grammar leads to verbosity which carries no useful information for someone 

the first { is sometimes on a new line, which does not add a lot of 
info. because that is what i am used to.
the last } is sometimes not on a new line, which makes the code hard to 
read. because that is not what i am used to.

c is, imho, the smallest of problems when it comes to loc and 
formatting. i can write a indent script that does whatever the shootout 
wants.
provided that the shootout has a change of heart and suddenly accepts my 
offers to help.


> hunting through the source for a familiar-looking piece of code (which is 
> something I do a lot and which, I think, is why LOC is more important than 
> bytes/tokens or anything else I can think of). In my experience, I'd say that 
> hunting through code is one of the biggest contributors to development time.

i fully agree. this is my experience too.


bengt