Throw the cat among the pigeons

[Ian Kelly]

On Tue, May 5, 2015 at 3:23 PM, Ian Kelly <ian.g.kelly at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Tue, May 5, 2015 at 3:00 PM, Dave Angel <davea at davea.name> wrote:
>> def loop(func, funcname, arg):
>>     start = time.time()
>>     for i in range(repeats):
>>         func(arg, True)
>>     print("{0}({1}) took {2:7.4}".format(funcname, arg, time.time()-start))
>>
>>     start = time.time()
>>     for i in range(repeats):
>>         func(arg)
>>     print("{0}({1}) took {2:7.4}".format(funcname, arg, time.time()-start))
>
> Note that you're explicitly passing True in one case but leaving the
> default in the other. I don't know whether that might be responsible
> for the difference you're seeing.

I don't think that's the cause, but I do think that it has something
to do with the way the timing is being run. When I run your loop
function, I do observe the difference. If I reverse the order so that
the False case is tested first, I observe the opposite. That is, the
slower case is consistently the one that is timed *first* in the loop
function, regardless of which case that is.