Thanks... it's interesting to see that functional languages in general, and especially ML derivatives, do show comparable performance to languages like Python, Perl and Java. But what I was really after was an indication of trends. The impression I have is that longer the term trend is to close gap between FPLs and (say) C, and it is for that I'd like some supporting evidence, or indications. #g -- At 19:00 29/09/04 +0000, John Goerzen wrote:

On 2004-09-29, Graham Klyne wrote:

...

I've taken it as an article of faith that performance of FP language implementations has been improving quite steadily over the past few years. I'd like to assert this, but I can't find any clear evidence to

One place to start is the Language Shootout at http://shootout.alioth.debian.org/. While it is a benchmark, and therefore subject to all sorts of standard disclaimers about rigged benchmarks, some interesting conclusions can be seen:

1. OCaml often performs better than g++

2. OCaml sometimes even beats gcc.

3. ghc doesn't seem to do very well in terms of performance, though it does at least beat out Java in many cases.

4. ghc has some of the most concise programs out there

There's not a lot of information there on historical trends, but the fact that a mostly-functional language like OCaml can beat out c++ is fairly impressive.

-- John

...

I'm looking for a reference -- informal will be enough -- that can give an perspective of progress in functional language implementation performance. I'm not looking for a single benchmark that shows a case of blindingly-fast functional code, but a pointer to trends of improving performance. It would also serve my purpose to have indications based on languages other than Haskell (e.g. ML and friends).

Any ideas, please?

#g

------------ Graham Klyne For email: http://www.ninebynine.org/#Contact

-- John Goerzen Author, Foundations of Python Network Programming http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1590593715

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------------ Graham Klyne For email: http://www.ninebynine.org/#Contact