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D - DMD generates fast code!

reply pts+d math.bme.hu writes:
Dear All,

I have good preliminary news. DMD 0.73 seems to generate faster code than GCC
3.3! This is good. But why? You can download my test program from

http://www.inf.bme.hu/~pts/d_is_fast.zip

Watch the `user' times:

$ dmd -O -version=linux_libc zcatd.d
gcc zcatd.o -o zcatd -lphobos -lpthread -lm -Xlinker -L../../bin/../lib
$ gcc-3.3 -mcpu=pentium-mmx -s -O3 -DCFG_LANG_ANSIC=1 -ansi -pedantic -W
-Wall zcatc.c -o zcatc
$ time ./zcatd <t.gz >t

real    0m2.825s
user    0m2.390s
sys     0m0.300s
$ zcat t.gz | cmp t -
$ time ./zcatc <t.gz >t

real    0m4.526s
user    0m4.080s
sys     0m0.230s
$ zcat t.gz | cmp t -
$

pts
Sep 24 2003
next sibling parent reply Ant <Ant_member pathlink.com> writes:
In article <bksfgi$165o$1 digitaldaemon.com>, pts+d math.bme.hu says...

Dear All,

I have good preliminary news. DMD 0.73 seems to generate faster code than GCC
3.3! This is good. But why?


from http://www.digitalmars.com/d/overview.html
"
Include files. A major cause of slow compiles as each compilation unit must
reparse enormous quantities of header files. Include files should be done as
importing a symbol table. 
"

DUI has 43000 lines and takes 1 or 2 seconds to compile with DMD.
gtkmm has 95000 lines and takes (not clocked) about half an hour to 
compile with gcc.
Obviouly the comparison can't be done like this
but looks like DMD is about 900 times faster!
(I compile DUI in one go and gtkmm is compiled file by file,
but the fact that dmd can compile a big bunch of files 
and gcc doesn't dare to do it is relevant.
Now that I'm writting this: DUI is compiled in 3 or 4 runs of dmd
so it should takes  3 or 4 times 1 or 2 seconds, so 900 times might
be more like 300 times, bummer,
from 5 minuts to 1 second... can't you do better Walter? ;)

Utilities that try to check which programs need to compile need to be
very fast or they risk increasing the code generation time.

(when we start releasing open source applications/utilities)
people not used to dmd will think the compilation failed!

Ant
Sep 24 2003
parent Ant <Ant_member pathlink.com> writes:
In article <bkshtj$19kj$1 digitaldaemon.com>, Ant says...

In article <bksfgi$165o$1 digitaldaemon.com>, pts+d math.bme.hu says...

Dear All,

I have good preliminary news. DMD 0.73 seems to generate faster code than GCC





from 5 minuts to 1 second


oh, you say "faster code", not "code faster"... :P

Any way, I wanted to say that a couple of weeks ago,
when Walter released the wc on the Alice text comparison with C.

Ant
Sep 24 2003
prev sibling parent reply "Sean L. Palmer" <palmer.sean verizon.net> writes:
That is good news, but beating GCC's code generation is not saying much.  ;)

Also GCC goes all the way up to -O6, and you only used -O3.  That may not
make much difference.

You shouldn't trust benchmarks like this.  Tweaking the options a bit could
tilt the results either way.  The order you run the programs in is important
too unless you flush the disk cache and memory cache between runs, the
second program can benefit from the run of the first bringing stuff into the
caches.

Sean

<pts+d math.bme.hu> wrote in message news:bksfgi$165o$1 digitaldaemon.com...

 Dear All,

 I have good preliminary news. DMD 0.73 seems to generate faster code than


GCC

 3.3! This is good. But why? You can download my test program from

 http://www.inf.bme.hu/~pts/d_is_fast.zip

 Watch the `user' times:

 $ dmd -O -version=linux_libc zcatd.d
 gcc zcatd.o -o zcatd -lphobos -lpthread -lm -Xlinker -L../../bin/../lib
 $ gcc-3.3 -mcpu=pentium-mmx -s -O3 -DCFG_LANG_ANSIC=1 -ansi -pedantic -W
 -Wall zcatc.c -o zcatc
 $ time ./zcatd <t.gz >t

 real    0m2.825s
 user    0m2.390s
 sys     0m0.300s
 $ zcat t.gz | cmp t -
 $ time ./zcatc <t.gz >t

 real    0m4.526s
 user    0m4.080s
 sys     0m0.230s
 $ zcat t.gz | cmp t -
 $

 pts
Sep 24 2003
next sibling parent "Walter" <walter digitalmars.com> writes:
"Sean L. Palmer" <palmer.sean verizon.net> wrote in message
news:bksji1$1c3j$1 digitaldaemon.com...

 That is good news, but beating GCC's code generation is not saying much.


;)

 Also GCC goes all the way up to -O6, and you only used -O3.  That may not
 make much difference.


<g> Responses I get for D code running faster than the equivalent C++ code
are:

1) Did I try Brand X C++ compiler, which presumably optimizes better?
2) That isn't the proper/modern/whatever way to write code in C++.
3) Theoretically, a better C++ optimizer would make it faster.
4) Performance is not so important.


 You shouldn't trust benchmarks like this.  Tweaking the options a bit


could

 tilt the results either way.  The order you run the programs in is


important

 too unless you flush the disk cache and memory cache between runs, the
 second program can benefit from the run of the first bringing stuff into


the

 caches.


Of course you're right, it pays to be careful in interpreting benchmark
results so that what you think you are measuring is what is actually being
measured (for example, I've seen benchmarks that purported to measure CPU
speed that in actuality were totally dominated by file I/O speed). As they
say, there are lies, d**n lies, and benchmarks. Nevertheless, benchmarks do
give useful information in comparing languages and compilers.

And the more benchmarks are written, the more it becomes inescapable that D
is as well or better suited to writing high performance applications than
C++.
Sep 24 2003
prev sibling parent Ilya Minkov <minkov cs.tum.edu> writes:
Sean L. Palmer wrote:

 Also GCC goes all the way up to -O6, and you only used -O3.  That may not
 make much difference.


Not any longer, O3 is currently the top, and all above are equivalent, 
if you trust the manual. However, it doesn't turn on *all* 
optimisations, separate command-line parameters are requiered for some 
of them.

-eye
Oct 26 2003