Ada speed vs. C...

[Vinod Grover]

In article <8347 at hubcap.clemson.edu> wtwolfe at hubcap.clemson.edu (Bill Wolfe) writes:
>
>   In response to recent requests for comparisons of the speed of
>   the code generated by Ada compilers vs. C compilers, the following
>   results were originally described at the Tri-Ada '88 conference
>   in Charleston, WV on October 26, 1988:
> 
>--------------------------------------------------------------------------
>Among the C compilers chosen were those that produced the best times on 
>16.77 Mhz 68020 based machines out of a list of published dhrystone results 
>for 300 compilers.  The TeleSoft TeleGen2 optimizing compiler was compared 
>against four other C compilers:
>
>          Sun/Unix 3.2 C on a Sun 3/160
>          GreenHills C on ISI optimum V machine
>          Gnu C on a Sun 3/160
>          MASSCOMP C on RTU 3.1, NC-5700 machine
>
>MASSCOMP had the best C compiler, our Ada compiler only beat it by a very
>small margin.
>
>The whole point of the comparison was not to prove that Ada is better than
>C but that it's possible for Ada compilers to generate code that is just
>as good or better than C compilers.  It takes a lot of time and effort to
>go from a compiler that meets the minimum language requirements to a
>highly optimizing compiler.  Ada compilers will continue to improve and
>you can expect to see more optimizing compilers from a variety of sources.


I took the trouble to call TeleSoft and obtained some information about
these results. They sent me a brochure describing the Ada vs C results.
They report highest performance on a Sun-3 relative to 3 C compilers. 
The test is the PIWG Dhrystone. 

They also mention in that brochure that for the Ada version checks were
turned off. 

Though, of course Mr Wolfe conveniently omits this piece of information.  If
you turn off constraint checks, you are sacrificing the much-touted safety
of Ada. In *this respect*, I do not see how you are different from
programming in C or any other unsafe language.


---------
Vinod Grover

Disclaimer: I am not speaking for my employer.