From: Chad Perrin <perrin@...>
Date: 2006-07-27T14:42:30+09:00
Subject: Re: For performance, write it in C

On Thu, Jul 27, 2006 at 02:26:37PM +0900, Keith Gaughan wrote:
> On Thu, Jul 27, 2006 at 01:59:37PM +0900, Chad Perrin wrote:
> > 
> > I'm judging it based on running it on Windows.  My point is that
> > divorcing it from the only environment in which it runs (natively) is
> > less than strictly sporting of you, when trying to discuss its
> > performance characteristics (or lack thereof).
> 
> Wait... I did no such thing. All I said was that what interface
> sluggishness you get from Excel can't be blamed on Excel. They're
> performance characteristics that *can* be divorced from Excel (because
> they're Window's own performance characteristic, not Excel's). Argue
> those points, and you're arguing about the wrong software.

Design decisions that involve interfacing with interface software that
sucks is related to the software under discussion -- and not all of the
interface is entirely delegated to Windows, either.  No software can be
evaluated for its performance characteristics separate from its
environment except insofar as it runs without that environment.


> 
> But Wine is an emulator, and while it does a good job approaching the
> speed of Windows, it doesn't hit it, nor can it hit it. You're not
> comparing like with like. Now that's far from sporting.

Actually, no, it's not an emulator.  It's a set of libraries (or a
single library -- I'm a little sketchy on the details) that provides the
same API as Windows software finds in a Windows environment.  An
emulator actually creates a faux/copy version of the environment it's
emulating.  It is to Linux compared with Unix as an actual emulator is
to Cygwin compared with Unix: one is a differing implementation and the
other is an emulator.

. . . and, in fact, there are things that run faster via Wine on Linux
than natively on Windows.


[ snip ]
> under FreeBSD. Bringing Wine in is a red herring. Software cannot be
> blamed for the environment it's executed in.

I didn't bring it up.  You did.  I made a comment about Excel not
working in Linux as a bit of a joke, attempting to make the point that
saying Excel performance can be evaluated separately from its dependence
on Windows doesn't strike me as useful.

-- 
CCD CopyWrite Chad Perrin [ http://ccd.apotheon.org ]
"The measure on a man's real character is what he would do
if he knew he would never be found out." - Thomas McCauley