[pypy-dev] Speeding up zlib in standard library

[Maciej Fijalkowski]

On Tue, Mar 27, 2012 at 3:27 PM, Peter Cock <p.j.a.cock at googlemail.com> wrote:
> On Wed, Mar 21, 2012 at 5:49 PM, Maciej Fijalkowski <fijall at gmail.com> wrote:
>> On Wed, Mar 21, 2012 at 7:10 PM, Peter Cock <p.j.a.cock at googlemail.com> wrote:
>>> That doesn't sound quite so intimidating... and if I've understood this
>>> now it does seem like the basis of a good development FAQ entry:
>>> http://doc.pypy.org/en/latest/faq.html#development
>>>
>>> Then if the benchmark results are encouraging, in principle I could
>>> then recompile the whole of pypy (which is slow), and then go back
>>> to run the patched pypy on my real script to see what difference it
>>> makes, if any.
>>>
>>> Right?
>>>
>>> Thanks for bearing with me,
>>>
>>> Peter
>>
>> Right, you got it perfect :)
>>
>> Can you suggest the wording for a FAQ entry?
>>
>> Cheers,
>> fijal
>
> Something like this? Peter.
>
> Q: How can I test and benchmark a modification to PyPy, for
> example in a StringBuilder method?
>
> A: Based on the existing examples, create a new StringBuilder
> benchmark as the file pypy/translator/targetStringBuilder.py which
> will verify the functionality and/or time it, and do this:
>
> $ cd pypy/translator/goal/
> $ python translate.py targetStringBuilder.py
> $ ./targetStringBuilder-c
>
> Then make your modifications to pypy/rpython/lltypesystem/rbuilder.py
> (or whatever you are working on) and repeat this. That should compare
> the benchmark translation by the virgin PyPy against the translation
> by your modified PyPy. Once you have a potentially useful improvement,
> you should run the full test suite to ensure there are no side effects.
>
> Q: How do I run PyPy's unit tests?
>
> A: ...

This sounds overly specific to me. What do others think?