[oak perl] New IBM/Sony/Toshiba microprocessor is good news for Perl

Adrien Lamothe alamozzz at yahoo.com
Tue Feb 8 15:51:31 PST 2005


Actually, it is more likely that the things that
seem fast now will seem fast then and the things
that seem slow now will seem fast then also, when
comparing programs that are processor-bound. If a
program is slow because it is I/O-bound (heavy
reliance on disk files or other external data,)
then it doesn't matter what language it is
written in, it will perform slowly (although
I/O bound programs that also crunch a lot of
data will perform somewhat faster with a compiled
language.) There are data storage breakthroughs on
the horizon; when those occur then everything will
run fast.

So, the point is that when designing software it is
important to develop an execution profile. You can
then evaluate hardware, operating systems and 
languages to arrive at some expectation of
performance. Faster hardware gives you a greater
range of language (C, Perl, etc.) and/or virtual
machine (Java, SmallTalk, etc.) options from which
to choose; this allows you to choose an environment
with constructs better suited to your application.
 
A prime example of this is the web application
server (such as Websphere, Weblogic, ATG Dynamo.)
You can certainly develop a faster web site using
Apache with mod_perl or some other language along 
with one of several databases, but achieving the
functionality available with the web app servers
will require a TON of work. Businesses chose to
use the web app servers because the inherent
functionality saves them from having to "reinvent
the wheel," even though they take a performance
hit. They speed up the slow performing app by
using hardware clusters with huge amounts of RAM.
Thus, they throw hardware at the problem.

There are also cases where customers will purchase
and use a software package they find too slow for
their liking, because it is the only package 
sophisticated enough to meet the demands of the
application space. I was involved in development
of an integrated network management system that
fell into this category. We used the fastest
hardware available that supported our required
software stack, short of Crays and 3090 mainframes,
distributed the software across several computers, and
the system was still slow. But, it got the job done
and offered features not found in competing products.

By the way, I just remembered that Sony was looking
for Playstation developers a few years ago, and they
wanted people with either Perl or Python. So it looks
like Sony may already be using Perl (or Python)
in the Playstation.

-- Adrien


--- Belden Lyman <blyman at iii.com> wrote:

> Sure, and I understand all that. I'm not so
> confident as you,
> that's all.
> 
> I think people's expectations of speed will also
> increase tenfold.
> The things that seem slow on my P3 will seem slow on
> my Cell, and
> the things that seem fast now will seem fast then.
> 
> Belden
> 
> On Tue, 2005-02-08 at 14:23, Adrien Lamothe wrote:
> > Yes, a performance increase benefits all software.
> > As I said, interpreted languages will always run
> > slower than their compiled cousins. However, there
> > is a "threshold" principle in effect that
> determines
> > whether a particular programming language or 
> > environment should be considered for a particular
> > application. If using an interpreted language will
> > result in an app that is too slow, then the
> language
> > should not be used. When an increase in hardware
> > performance enables the same interpreted language
> > to cross the threshold and perform acceptably,
> then
> > you can evaluate the interpreted language against
> > compiled languages using criteria such as ease
> > of use, useful programming constructs (such as
> > powerful regular expression capability,) etc.
> > Even though the compiled languages will still
> perform
> > faster, the interpreted language is now "good
> enough"
> > (and probably better than just "good enough"),
> > which then gives the designer latitude to consider
> > other factors.
> > 
> > There is no doubt that the coming large
> performance
> > increases will result in better 3-D games and
> > media (Toshiba plans to use the new processor in
> > televisions.) This will at some point create a
> > new wave in consumer electronics spending. 
> > People are always looking for better entertainment
> 
> > and "eye candy." Languages like Perl may even
> > find their way into the new high-performance
> > entertainment appliances (Sony plans to use the
> > new processor in Playstation-3.) These appliances
> > are essentially general purpose computers with
> > networking capability. Perl could be used for
> > administrative tasks on these machines; probably
> > not accessible to the users, but useful to the
> > developers.
> > 
> > -- Adrien
> > 
> > 
> > --- Belden Lyman <blyman at iii.com> wrote:
> > 
> > > On Tue, 2005-02-08 at 11:48, Adrien Lamothe
> wrote:
> > > > What does this have to do with Perl? Well, as
> an
> > > > interpreted language, Perl programs will
> always
> > > > run slower than their compiled cousins.
> > > Interpreted
> > > > languages always benefit from hardware speed
> > > > increases. So, on this newer hardware, Perl
> may
> > > > be considered for tasks that it previously
> wasn't.
> > > 
> > > Why do you say "interpreted languages always
> benefit
> > > from
> > > hardware speed increases"? Isn't an increase in
> > > hardware
> > > speed an across-the-board gain for all software
> > > using that
> > > hardware?
> > > 
> > > I mean, sure, perl programs will run faster, but
> > > they won't
> > > run any faster in comparison to other programs.
> > > 
> > > Personally, I hope that the increase in CPU
> speed
> > > allows
> > > for better 3-d games and cooler special effects
> in
> > > films.
> > > And perhaps better software testing.
> > > 
> > > Did anyone see http://tinyurl.com/7yr6s in
> Popular
> > > Science
> > > last month, which showed how inkjet printers are
> > > doing some
> > > very wierd things? (Like printing a cat heart:
> no
> > > kidding.)
> > > 
> > > Next url also visits same site in case you don't
> > > like tinyurl.
> > > 
> > >
> >
>
http://www.hugeurl.com/?OTdjN2M0NzQ0YjVlNjUzMzU0YWUzMjAwMDNl
> > >
> >
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> > >
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> > >
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> > >
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> > >
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> >
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> > >
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> > >
> >
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> > >
> >
>
VlJiVVpWVm5wV2RsWXdXbmRTTVhCR1QxWk9hVk5GU2twWGJGWnJVakpLU0ZK
> > > dVNsTldSVlU1
> > > 
> > > Just copy-paste onto one line of your browser.
> > > 
> > > Belden, srand()'ing Oakland.pm since the very
> > > beginning!
> > > 
> > > _______________________________________________
> 
=== message truncated ===


=====
Adrien Lamothe
www.adriensweb.com


		
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