[COFF] Perl (was Re: forth on early unix)

[Tony Patti via COFF]

> Larry McVoy via COFF <coff at tuhs.org> wrote at September 22, 2025 12:55 PM
> 

> I wised up when I started benchmarking, perl is pretty fast but it is no
match for C.  I wrote the next source management system in C.

 

Speaking of benchmarking multiple languages, I recently created version 2 of
my paper (now 186 pages) entitled:

"An interesting example at the intersection of Matrix Mathematics and
Cryptography (and how Artificial Intelligence can write programs)"

which can be found at
https://glassblower.info/crypto/an-interesting-example-at-the-intersection-o
f-matrix-mathematics-and-cryptography-version-2.pdf

The timings below (from page 80) are for inversion of a 500x500 matrix in
Galois Field GF(997727), processing 5-million-bit matrix
encryption/decryption keys:

 

Python 223        seconds

PHP        29.6       seconds

Java       4.3         seconds

C             2.5         seconds

Go          1.84       seconds

Rust       1.7         seconds

 

I thought you might find these timings interesting: a full two orders of
magnitude difference!

 

Google Gemini tells me that for 64-bit integer math, Perl (which I have not
used for a very long time) is likely to be even slower than Python.

 

Tony Patti

(ARPAnet NIC IDENT "TP4")