ANN: Shed Skin 0.2, an experimental (restricted) Python-to-C++ compiler

[Bearophile]

William Dode':
> http://hg.flibuste.net/libre/games/cheval
> Like you'll see, i tried to use exactly the same code for each langage.

It's a cute solver.

Few more versions of mine:

#1, a Psyco version of mine:
http://codepad.org/9m5rf7kX

#2, unrolled Psyco version:
http://codepad.org/gKFLu34M

#3, a quick D (D1) version:
http://codepad.org/Tk9FL7Xk

Timings (no printing), seconds, best of 3:
#1: 4.79
#2: 3.67
#3: 1.10
Your Psyco version: 13.37
Your C version, compiled with GCC 4.3.2, -s -O3 -fomit-frame-pointer:
3.79

I have timed the whole running time of the programs, with an external
timer, so my timings include the start of the PythonVM and the final
cleanup of the GC.

Please, feel free to time my code again, so we can compare with your
other timings (Java, etc) better.

I have used Psyco 1.6 final and Python 2.6.2 on a Core2 CPU at 2 GHz.

To compile the D1 code you can use the free DMD compiler for D1, I
have used version 1.042, www.digitalmars.com/d/download.html ).

In such benchmarks it's often better to start from the fastest low
level code (written in an imperative language as C/D/C++, or a version
in a functional language like Clean or OCaML) and then use it to
create higher level versions (in Python, etc). This offers you a
baseline timing, and usually the small differences of the higher level
code compared to the original C/Clean code don't invalidate the test.

I have changed only small things in the program, as you can see the
Psyco program #2 is faster than your C code :-) If you learn how to
use it well, Psyco1.6 can often lead to very good performance. But lot
of people don't know how to use Psyco well (I too am ignorant: I don't
know how to profile Python programs yet).

Bye,
bearophile