From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me X-Spam-Level: * X-Spam-Status: No, score=1.3 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00,INVALID_MSGID, MSGID_RANDY autolearn=no autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 103376,66752102482bbdca X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public From: Robert Dewar Subject: Re: Required Metrics Date: 2000/05/03 Message-ID: <8ep0k3$jlr$1@nnrp1.deja.com>#1/1 X-Deja-AN: 618633730 References: <5DDO4.2237$wb7.194854@news.flash.net> <8ek4ea$5ta$1@nnrp1.deja.com> <390DC8AD.59B5EBEE@averstar.com> X-Http-Proxy: 1.0 x43.deja.com:80 (Squid/1.1.22) for client 205.232.38.14 Organization: Deja.com - Before you buy. X-Article-Creation-Date: Wed May 03 10:56:06 2000 GMT X-MyDeja-Info: XMYDJUIDrobert_dewar Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada X-Http-User-Agent: Mozilla/4.61 [en] (OS/2; I) Date: 2000-05-03T00:00:00+00:00 List-Id: The trouble with documentation requirements is that the standard, by necessity, does not define exactly what the meaning of these requirements is, or even what documentation consists of. In the case of typical implementations on top of an operating system, about the best documentation of the conventional kind that you could give for tasking metrics would be to clearly document the sequence of operating systems calls that is made for any particular tasking language construct. Our view in the case of GNAT is that the sources of the run-time which are an integral part of our complete technical documentation contain precisely this information, and so far we have not had any instances of users requiring the information in any other form. I don't think this is so surprising. We could of course run benchmarks on particular machines under particular conditions and publish numbers that appear to meet the requirements of the RM. Why "appear"? Because in practice they won't be useful for users. If users need hard figures on timings of tasking operations, what we would advise is that they run tests corresponding to their actual use of tasking constructs in the exact conditions they will be using them. This is the same advice that applies to any use of any features of the language. I personally think the metrics requirements in annex D do not belong in a language standard. They are too vague from a formal point of view, and not helpful from a pragmatic point of view. Historically they were put there to satisfy people who actually wanted to try to quantify performance with specific RM requirements for performance, keyed to processor clock speed. That's of course an even WORSE idea for infusing the standard with inappropriate junk :-) Robert Dewar Ada Core Technologies Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/ Before you buy.