I have written a numerically intensive program http://atlc.sourceforge.net/ that runs on multiple CPUs using threads. Also, at a very early stage of development (apparently works on Linux but certainly not on my Sun), can run distributed over a network. Compiler options, whether the program is configured with support for threads, or for distributed processing, all affect the execution speed.
I was thinking of adding the ability to benchmark the executables. i.e. so something like 'make benchmark' to run a set of benchmarks and report on the time taken. Firstly, does using automake in this way seem sensible, or should it not be done using automake? Secondly, if it is sensible, how would I do it? Can I add a target like 'benchmark' and if so how? Clearly any such target would need to depend on the fact the sources have already been built. I could write the benchmark as a script. So assuming I can write a script called 'timeme', how would I ensure that 'timeme' gets run if the user types 'make benchmark' ? -- Dr. David Kirkby, Senior Research Fellow, Department of Medical Physics, University College London, 11-20 Capper St, London, WC1E 6JA. Tel: 020 7679 6408 Fax: 020 7679 6269 Internal telephone: ext 46408 e-mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]