p2c benchmarks?

[Stephen Clamage]

In article <109690 at linus.UUCP> lamour at mitre.org (Michael Lamoureux) writes:
>	I was just wondering if anyone has done any benchmarks on the
>before & after results of p2c ...
>Some people were asking if I knew if the resulting code
>would run slower, equal, or faster than the original Pascal code, and by
>how much (on the average).

The problem here is the tremendous variability of compilers for one
language even on the same machine.  If you look at compiler reviews in
magazines, you find multiplicative factors (not just percentages) in
speed (and size) difference.

Now you add an additional dimension by using compilers for different
languages.  One sometimes sees statements like "Pascal programs are
slower (or bigger) than C programs".  This should be restated as "my
Pascal compiler generates slower (or bigger) code than my C compiler
for this program pair."

There are language suites from some vendors where optimizer and code
generator are shared among languages, and only the front end (parser)
differs.  If you find a C/Pascal pair where the same versions of the
optimizer and back end are used, and where the implementor took the
same care in parsing both languages, you have a chance of a meaningful
comparison.
-- 

Steve Clamage, TauMetric Corp, steve at taumet.com