Python and STL efficiency

[Tim N. van der Leeuw]

Mc Osten wrote:
> Fredrik Lundh <fredrik at pythonware.com> wrote:
>
> > Python's memory allocator is also quite fast, compared to most generic
> > allocators...
>
> In fact also in the two "slow" versions Python outperforms C++.
> I didn't notice it in the first place.
>
> --
> blog:  http://www.akropolix.net/rik0/blogs | Uccidete i filosofi,
> site:  http://www.akropolix.net/rik0/      | tenetevi riso e
> forum: http://www.akropolix.net/forum/     | bacchette per voi.

Well, I guess I'm getting really obsessed with this. But anyways. I
installed MinGW on my Windows-XP (sp2) laptop. It is g++ version 3.4.5
-- ancient, yes, but on windows it's the latest available.

I compiled Mc Osten's C++ program (tweaked the output a little) and ran
it; ran his version of the python code too.
Oh boy; yes indeed the slow python is faster than the fast C++
version... Must be something really awful happening in the STL
implementation that comes with GCC 3.4!

Here's the output from my console:

LeeuwT at nlshl-leeuwt ~/My Documents/Python
$ g++ -O3 -march=pentium-m -o SpeedTest SpeedTest.cpp

LeeuwT at nlshl-leeuwt ~/My Documents/Python
$ ./SpeedTest.py
Begin Test
Number of unique string objects: 4
so long...
What do you know
fool
chicken crosses road
Number of unique string objects: 40000
so long...
What do you know
fool
chicken crosses road
Fast - Elapsed: 0.037574 seconds
Slow - Elapsed: 0.081520 seconds

LeeuwT at nlshl-leeuwt ~/My Documents/Python
$ ./SpeedTest.exe
Begin Test
What do you know?
chicken crosses road
fool
so long...
What do you know?
chicken crosses road
fool
so long...
Fast - Elapsed: 2.089 seconds
Slow - Elapsed: 6.303 seconds

LeeuwT at nlshl-leeuwt ~/My Documents/Python


Cheers,

--Tim