From: Aaron Patterson <aaron@...>
Date: 2009-03-18T08:47:55+09:00
Subject: Re: [ANN] hpricot 0.7

On Wed, Mar 18, 2009 at 08:26:38AM +0900, _why wrote:
> On Wed, Mar 18, 2009 at 06:56:19AM +0900, Aaron Patterson wrote:
> > HTML fix ups will be tested as well.  So will CSS searches, XPath
> > searches, memory usage, and many other things.  As I said[2], these benchmarks
> > are not complete.  If you're worried about being treated fairly, fork my
> > repository and write tests.
> 
> No no, don't be silly, I'd much rather complain and be a sore
> loser. I insist.
> 
> Look, I think I'd just rather see the benchmarks kept up by a
> third party who has nothing to gain and can show a more nuanced
> view of the scene. I really wish I could drop Hpricot (as
> RubyfulSoup did,) but I think it has its strengths.

I agree, but who will write them?  So far, we only have either poorly
written ones, or speculation.  Neither are good.  I figured if I wrote
these, put it on github, I could get other people to do the work.

> Let me ask you this. You're neck and neck with libxml-ruby. The
> bulk of your time is spent in the exact same HTML parser as
> libxml-ruby. Why the hyperfocus on benchmarks and declaring
> yourselves winners? You're never going to be too far off from
> their speed. So, I mean, it strikes me as adversarial and needless,
> if your library quality and bug fixing are of the sort that Ryan
> David has just touted.

I'm not sure that 10-20% difference is neck and neck.  I actually found
this result to be a surprise.  I thought nokogiri would be slower.  In
fact, I am sure I will find parts that are slower.  Once I do, I know
where I can improve.

I don't understand why you would think this is adversarial.  As I said,
these benchmarks are not finished.  I am merely trying to collect data,
and I want no emotions involved.  I made my tests public so that
hopefully I can remain unbiased.  If it seems unfair or incorrect, tell
me so.  It won't hurt my feelings.  My goal is to learn, and to write
better software.

--
Aaron Patterson
http://tenderlovemaking.com/