an interesting problem so developed now is to write a function that generate test cases for the purpose of testing performance. (just for fun)
the design of this function could be interesting. We want to be able to give parameters in this function so as to spit out all possible screw test cases. First of all, a range of n (some millions) numbers. Then, a fraction that specifies the percentage of these number are equivalent. 1 being all equivalent. 0 being all "distinct" (having only one equivalent member (since the input comes in pairs)). Then we want to have a parameter that says something like the sizes of the equivalence groups. Suppose 50% of number are equal among themselves (i.e. have more than one equivalent member). 1 would be all in one group. 0 would mean all partitions have size 3 or 2. (there are more to it here... since this is a distribution) ... Then, we need to turn this range of integers into pairs. That's something more to think about. So with this function at hand, we'll be able to say for sure which code performs better (and under what type of input) the Order notion in computing mathematics is fairly useless for finer details. PS it is not trivial to design this pair generating function. I don't know if the above is on the right track, but essentially we want to categorize the type of inputs according to the mathematical operational performance aspect of partition by equivalence, and distill them into parameters. another func to write is one that canonicalize the output. Such as sorting. So that all results can be compared simply by = in Python. failing to design a elaborate pair_gen, we can just have pairs of random numbers. But exactly what nature is such input... is more to think about. (in my original application, each number represent a computer file, there are up to tens of thousands of files, and much less than 0.1% is same as another, and for files that are same, each equivalent group number no more than 10 or so.) Xah [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://xahlee.org/PageTwo_dir/more.html John Machin wrote: > FWIW, here's a brief UAT report: > > Appears to work: Reinhold, David, Xah... > Has bug(s): ... -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
