Re: Why does Ada compile slower than Python?

[Victor Porton <porton@narod.ru>]

gautier_niouzes@hotmail.com wrote:

> Fortunately, with GNAT, the slow build time is well rewarded by
> performance. I just have the following real case today at my job:
> 
> A certain number-crunching job is a big bottleneck since years. It has
> been developed as a SQL stored procedure. Then someone has made a Python
> version (program compiled into an executable). Independently I've made an
> Ada version. All three programs produce the same result.
> 
> SQL    : 12 hours run time - weeks of development work
> Python :  3 hours run time - weeks of development work
> Ada    : 27 minutes run time - 3 days of development work.
> 
> Now the "clou": most of the run time is actually spent loading data via a
> SQL select instruction. The actual number-crunching in Ada takes 24
> *seconds* in total!... Since the loading of data is a "fixed cost" (+/-
> the same whatever the implementation language) I let as an exercise to
> figure out the speedup factor of the computation side :-).

My case is not expected especially computationally intensive. Therefore the 
processing time is expected to depend mostly on compilation time (because I 
am to load software from the Web and run it in a secure sandbox).

Thus the execution time is expected to depend mostly on compilation time, 
not the time of execution itself. (However, I am not sure if this is really 
so, it will be clear when my software will run and tested with some real-
world scenaria.)

I need to take the decision whether Ada compiles fast enough to be used this 
way.

-- 
Victor Porton - http://portonvictor.org