REV, RB, SC speed test, Latest results

Richard Gaskin ambassador at fourthworld.com
Wed Apr 21 10:22:57 EDT 2004


Sarah Reichelt wrote:

> In a real world application, who cares whether a particular 
> routine takes 100 ms or 500 ms?

Ostensibly the test is part of an evaluation to compare tools for a 
given project.  If the speed of this one core algorithm were indeed 
critical then using the industry standard 3GL, C, would yield faster 
results and possibly in fewer lines of code than a more verbose and 
characteristically slower 3GL like Beginner's All-Purpose Symbolic 
Instruction Code.

It is precisely for cases such as this that an externals mechanism 
exists in most modern 4GLs, so that the other 90% of the development 
cycle is not encumbered with the sort of bit-counting tedium that 
radically lowers overall productivity.

By relying on a single factor to the ommission of others which directly 
affect development ROI, the comparison is not of the caliber one would 
use to evaluate tools for professional work.

I found some references on the subject that might be helpful if other 
relevant criteria were to be considered:

Choosing Software Development Products
<http://archive.adaic.com/docs/reports/lawlis/6.htm>

Rapid Application Development (RAD)
Studies of Differences in Productivity
<http://sysdev.ucdavis.edu/WEBADM/document/radmanage-studies.htm>

Overview of interactive GUI development environments
<http://www.metacard.com/ide1.html>

Software Metrics
<http://hebb.cis.uoguelph.ca/~dave/27320/new/metrics.html>

A Software Metrics Primer
<http://www.processimpact.com/articles/metrics_primer.html>

Software Metrics: Ten Traps to Avoid
<http://www.processimpact.com/articles/mtraps.html>

Scripting: Higher Level Programming
for the 21st Century
<http://dev.scriptics.com/doc/scripting.html>

The cost of poor quality software
<http://www.ispw.com/articles/Computer%20Finance.htm>

What Is A "Fourth-Generation Programming Language"
And Why Should I care?
<http://www.dexterchaney.com/showpage.asp?page=108>

-- 
  Richard Gaskin
  Fourth World Media Corporation
  ___________________________________________________________
  Ambassador at FourthWorld.com       http://www.FourthWorld.com


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