Subject: Re: What language would you use? From: Tom Christiansen tchrist@mox.perl.com Date: 6 Nov 1994 15:14:51 GMT Newsgroups: comp.lang.python,comp.lang.tcl,comp.lang.scheme,comp.lang.misc,comp.lang.perl Message-Id: <39irtb$3t4@csnews.cs.Colorado.EDU> References: <39b7ha$j9v@zeno.nscf.org> <39hhjp$lgn@csnews.cs.Colorado.EDU> <39hvsu$dus@mathserv.mps.ohio-state.edu>

[…] If you're really into benchmarks, I'd love it if someone were to code up the following problems in tcl, python, and scheme (and whatever else you'd like). Separate versions (one optimized for speed, one for beauty :-) are ok. Post your code so we can time it on our own systems.

0) Factorial Test (numerics and function calls)

    (we did this already)

1) Regular Expressions Test

Read a file of (extended per egrep) regular expressions (one per line), 
and apply those to all files whose names are listed on the command line.
Basically, an 'egrep -f' simulator.  Test it with 20 "vt100" patterns
against a five /etc/termcap files.  Tests using more elaborate patters
would also be interesting.  Your code should not break if given hundreds
of regular expressions or binary files to scan.  

2) Sorting Test

Sort an input file that consists of lines like this

    var1=23 other=14 ditto=23 fred=2

such that each output line is sorted WRT to the number.  Order
of output lines does not change.  Resolve collisions using the
variable name.   e.g.

    fred=2 other=14 ditto=23 var1=23 

Lines may be up to several kilobytes in length and contain
zillions of variables.

3) System Test

Given a list of directories, report any bogus symbolic links contained
anywhere in those subtrees.  A bogus symbolic link is one that cannot
be resolved because it points to a nonexistent or otherwise
unresolvable file.  Do *not* use an external find executable.
Directories may be very very deep.  Print a warning immediately if the
system you're running on doesn't support symbolic links.

I'll post perl solutions if people post the others.

--tom

Tom Christiansen Perl Consultant, Gamer, Hiker tchrist@mox.perl.com

"But Billy! A small allowance prepares you for a lifetime of small salaries and for your Social Security payments." --Family Circus