[TUHS] Bell Labs sed performance

[Diomidis Spinellis via TUHS]

Over the past year I ported the (now {Free,Net,Open})BSD version of 
sed(1) I implemented in C in the 1990s into Rust as part of the uutils 
initiative.  I've described the process in a series of four IEEE 
Software "Adventures in Code" [2] columns.  In this March's column [3] I 
compare the performance of the Rust implementation against that of GNU, 
FreeBSD, and the original 1970s Bell Labs Seventh Research Edition one 
[6].  Amazingly, in four benchmarks the Bell Labs implementation is 
still the fastest.  At 1850 lines of code (including a regular 
expression engine) it's also the smallest one (FreeBSD, 2672 LoC; GNU 
5462; Rust, 8946).  Admittedly, modern sed versions have more features. 
Still, one can only admire the design and craftsmanship that went into 
the original implementation.

[1] https://github.com/uutils/sed
[2] https://www.spinellis.gr/adventures-in-code.html
[3] https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=11433192
[4] https://github.com/dspinellis/sed-research-v7