They say Ruby is slow...

MartinRinehart

Strength Reduction is the transformation that would turn these loops into do_nothing loops.

Yes, but that's for really sharp compilers. I was just expecting func( 1.0 + 2.0 ) to be turned into func( 3.0 ).

thomthom

Revisiting this on the computer I use at work - which is similar to what I used in the first post:


t=Time.now; 1000000.times { 1.0 }; puts Time.now - t
0.109
nil
t=Time.now; 1000000.times { 1.0 + 2.0 }; puts Time.now - t
0.515
nil
t=Time.now; 1000000.times { 1.0 + 2.0 + 3.0 }; puts Time.now - t
0.873
nil
t=Time.now; 1000000.times { 1.0 + 2.0 + 3.0 + 4.0 }; puts Time.now - t
1.264
nil
t=Time.now; 1000000.times { 1.0 + 2.0 + 3.0 + 4.0 + 5.0 }; puts Time.now - t
1.638
nil

Which aligns better with what others have posted. My initial results in the first post seem to be an abnormality. But there is still significant performance hit.

l.frisken

why don't we just start discussing Lua while we're at it?

no, but seriously
Python is just a different language. I learned to use it before ruby, but then I discovered ruby, which I prefer for many reasons other than it's speed, which as mentioned is slow. Yes compulsory indentation is nice in some respects, but it is a complete and utter pain when mixing tabs with spaces (can't see where the problem is). Ruby allows for more creative formatting of the code (which can be very nice). I like them both, and don't we all wish the best of both could be combined?