[Shootout-list] New benchmark?

[Greg Buchholz]

--- Isaac GoGouyigigouyyahoo.com> wrote:
> 
> What does the 'lines of code metric' tell us when one person has
> implemented insertion-sort and someone else implemented
> quicksort

   If programmer A discovers that an insertion sort is the most
concise sort in language X, and programmer B discovers that
quicksort is the shortest in language Y, then when I come along
and see that A's program is 15% faster but B's program is 5
instead of 20 lines of code, I'll probably think B's language is
better.
 
> What do the times and memory usage tell us about the languages
> when entirely different algorithms have been used?

   If an implementor decides to use a different algorithm, it
tells us that the original algorithm was hard to code in that
language, or it resulted in an ugly, unmaintainable program.  Or a
much more natural approach was available in that language.  So the
implementor made a judgment call and decided that a different
program would better represent the language in question.  
   Of course, you could also reverse the question and ask, "What
do the times and memory usage tell us about the object
instantiation benchmark in languages like C, which don't have
objects?"

Greg Buchholz





	
		
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