Gustaf Rydevik wrote: > Hi all, > > Reading the wikipedia page on R, I stumbled across the following: > http://fluff.info/blog/arch/00000172.htm > There are certainly situations where one would want to consider faster solutions than interpreted languages but, having been through these arguments a few times over the years, here are a few things you might consider:
1/ How much is your time worth, how much does the computer time cost, and how much does a faster computer cost when you start writing your code? 2/ How much is your time worth, how much does the computer time cost, and how much does a faster computer cost when you finish writing your code? 3/ If you tweak the code, or use someone else's private tweaks, how much do you trust the results relative to more widely used and tested versions? 4/ You should do speed comparisons with something resembling your real problem. 5/ If you want to make R look really bad use a loop that gobbles lots of memory, so your machine starts to swap. (This is my guess of part of the problem with the "script".) 6/ If you want your code to be really fast, don't do any error checking. (This also avoids the enormous amount of time you waste when you find errors.) > It does seem interesting that the C execution is that much slower from > R than from a native C program. Could any of the more technically > knowledgeable people explain why this is so? > > The author also have some thought-provoking opinions on R being > no-good and that you should write everything in C People used to say assembler, that's progress. Paul Gilbert instead (mainly > because R is slow and too good at graphics, encouraging data > snooping). See http://fluff.info/blog/arch/00000041.htm > While I don't agree (granted, I can't really write C), it was > interesting to read something from a very different perspective than > I'm used to. > > Best regards, > > Gustaf > > _____ > Department of Epidemiology, > Swedish Institute for Infectious Disease Control > work email: gustaf.rydevik at smi dot ki dot se > skype:gustaf_rydevik > > ______________________________________________ > R-help@r-project.org mailing list > https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help > PLEASE do read the posting guide http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html > and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code. ==================================================================================== La version française suit le texte anglais. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ This email may contain privileged and/or confidential in...{{dropped:26}} ______________________________________________ R-help@r-project.org mailing list https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help PLEASE do read the posting guide http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.
