Re: Language Efficiency

[mg@harp.camb.inmet.com (Mitch Gart)]

Robert C. Bethel (robertb@cbis.com) wrote:
: Anyone know of research papers that deal with the subject
: of language efficiency? By efficiency I mean the quality
: of machine binaries (code space, execution time, etc.)
: given an identical program coded in several languages.

About 10 years ago I wrote an article on "Benchmarking Ada, C,
and Pascal".  I translated a set of small programs called
the Hennessy Benchmarks from Pascal to Ada and C, and then 
compared the execution time efficiency of the programs when
compiled and run on a PC.  The results looked good for Ada:
a few programs were a little faster in Ada, a few others were
a little faster in C, but overall there were no large differences
that made one language look more or less efficient than the
others.

I could dig out the paper if anyone wants to see it.

But as other people posting responses to this question have
noted, comparisons like this compare compilers as much as 
languages.  My paper compared Alsys Ada to Lattice C and 
Turbo Pascal on an old 16-bit Intel 286 PC-AT machine.  At the time 
the PC-AT was the most advanced PC, and Lattice C was one of 
the best C compilers for the PC.  Technology has changed a lot 
since then.  In particular, I think C compiler vendors have made 
dramatic improvements in their optimizers in the last ten years.

	Mitch Gart