[Shootout-list] Fibonacci Numbers: unfair entries for ocaml

[Pit Capitain]

Hi there,

I received a link to the Fibonacci Numbers test and had a brief look at the 
submissions. I think the top two entries (ocaml and ocamlb) don't implement the 
same algorithm as the others I looked at. They calculate the result using a new 
function with 3 arguments having a complexity of O(n).

For comparison, here's the equivalent modification of the Ruby entry:


# original

def fib(n)
     if n < 2 then
	1
     else
	fib(n-2) + fib(n-1)
     end
end


# the "ocaml way"

def fib2(n)
   def fiby(x, f0, f1)
     if x == 0
       f1
     else
       fiby(x-1, f1, f0 + f1)
     end
   end
   fiby(n, 0, 1)
end


# test

N = Integer(ARGV.shift || 32)

require 'benchmark'
Benchmark.bm do |bm|
   bm.report("original:") { puts fib(N) }
   bm.report("ocaml way:") { puts fib2(N) }
end


Running this script gives the following output on my machine:

       user     system      total        real
original:3524578
   8.531000   0.000000   8.531000 (  8.531000)
ocaml way:3524578
   0.000000   0.000000   0.000000 (  0.000000)

The result of the computation is the same, but look at the runtime difference!

So please reject both the ocaml versions or let the other languages implement 
the same algorithm.

Regards,
Pit

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