RE: [Caml-list] Benchmark suggestion

["Wolfgang Müller" <Wolfgang.Mueller2@uni-bayreuth.de>]

> I think one has to define the motivation for the benchmark.  Is it
> language evangelism, i.e. making people aware of OCaml?  or of FP
> languages generally?  If language evangelism is the point, then one
> should look at *all* the factors that go into picking new languages. The
> devil's in the details.

No, for me personally language evangelism is not the point. Language
evaluation is the point. If it comes out that the best language for
solving my problems is actually JAVA, I swallow and say "yes, thanks for
this information" (this is the current state of affairs, by the way). If
it turns out that Python/SWIG is what would do best what I need and I can
motivate people to do that, I'd do Python/SWIG.

> Actually I think comparative benchmarking for some goal other than
> evangelism is kinda pointless.

How do you define "evangelism"? The word means "spreading the good
message". So this means benchmarking is good for finding out if a language
is useful? Yes, I think this is what a benchmark is about, right?

And yes, ease of mixed-language programming could be a useful parameter.

> Otherwise why are you bothering?  You are wasting your time.  I do mean
> *time*, with my OpenGL device driver background I'm very conscious of
> how much production time benchmarking consumes.

I certainly do not have your OpenGL device driver background :-) and I
spare you with my definition of what "real work" is :-D . In any case, I
would be interested in looking at a set of benchmarks that tells me if
what I want to achieve can be done easily and efficiently in a given
language or not, without me having to write too many comparative
benchmarks myself. One per week is clearly too many for me. Ballpark
figures are useful already.

Cheers,
Wolfgang


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