Re: FastCode - IntToStr B&V v0.12

> > > Speaking of which, here are the results for Delphi 6, 7 and 2005
> > > (don't have Delphi 5 installed on this machine) on a dual Xeon.
> > >
> > > I notice the CPU identification doesn't pick up the dual CPU. If
> > > it helps, I can test against the machine here.
> >
> > I created the code to test for multiple CPUs (and distinguish
> > between logical CPUs added by hyperthreading and "real" cores). It
> > will be in the next release.
>
> Is this the CPUID code that's also posted on the FastCode site, or are
> you using your own home grown routine? If they're different, should
> they be merged so everyone uses the same code?
>
> Either way, let me know if you need some help testing.

I appreciate everyone's help with testing, especially since i always
work on my single CPU, single core, non-hyperthreaded Pentium M Dothan.

It will be in the next release. I will probably post it today in the
evening, since it doesn't seem more changes (that is, submitted
functions) will be coming in soon.

> > However ISTM multiple CPUs shouldn't make much difference here,
> > since the B&V program is not multithreaded.
>
> True, at least for this challenge.
>
> > Perhaps it would be nicer to execute the benchmarking and validation
> > in a secondairy thread? This would make the GUI more responsive
> > during testing (on multiprocessor machines anyway; the benchmarks
> > will of course have higher priority then the GUI thread in this
> > case).
> >
> > Any opinions on this last point?
>
> I've been stewing on this a little.
>
> I agree with Dennis that benchmarks need to be run at the best
> possible speed, and I would be concerned that changes that make the
> UI more responsive might affect this. Validations aren't measured,
> so I'm not as concerned about these.

Ok, i agree with you two.

Validation:
Can be in secondairy thread, but isn't really important

Benchmarking:
Should not be in secondairy thread, to avoid this influencing the
result

> I think I'd like to see the B&Vs geared more toward unattended
> execution as opposed to interactive. Maybe with a simpler UI that
> gives more timely feedback (shorter running tests) and that can be
> easily cancelled at any time, but is designed to be to run/report/exit
> all on its own. It would make B&Vs easier to write, test and
> maintain.

Yes, this does make sense. It may be useful to allow the B&V to run
without GUI, getting it's input from the command line and reporting to
the standard output. In this case we should probably agree on the
command line syntax, so Dennis' and my (and others in the future?)
B&V's will have compatible commandline interfaces.

> I'm a huge fan of things like automated builds and tests. I almost
> have to be because of the number of active projects I have and the
> number of manual steps it would take to perform a build, run the unit
> tests and prepare the final project for distribution. Right now, I
> have a single FinalBuilder project that runs another FinalBuilder
> project for each of my projects and does all of this while I'm brewing
> the coffee.
>
> I'd like to have something similar for FastCode challenges. I
> download a new B&V, unzip it somewhere and run a single app or batch
> file that takes care of everything for me. In the end, I have the
> final result in a text (or XML) file that I can simply post. I
> didn't have to load each of the supported IDEs, build the B&V, run
> the validations, run the Delphi 2005 benchmarks (careful to run them
> all), copy them to the clipboard and then post them.

Yes, i like this too. And what about a B&V that can also post results
by itself, either to the newsgroup or to a WebService that registers
the results automatically for Dennis?
.

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