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On 8/10/06, Isaac Gouy <igouy / yahoo.com> wrote:
>
>
> Caleb Clausen wrote:
> -snip-
> > All right. I'm looking at it. Based on what I'm seeing on your
> > website, I'll make the following statements.
>
> Thank you for taking the trouble.
>
> -snip-
> > (Provided we undestand that this benchmark is testing the performance
> > of an arbitrary algorithm, not the performance that a real program
> > using random numbers in a given language would experience.)
>
> Maybe you could explain a little more - if someone was using one of
> those programs to generate Fasta files for program testing and
> algorithm development in their lab, would that make it a real program
> rather than an arbitrary algorithm? What do you say the difference is
> between a real program and an arbitrary algorithm?


A "real program" uses the most efficient algorithm neccessary to reach an
acceptable level of performance.  If this level is reached by a built in
library, it's used, instead of poorly re-invinting the wheel just to use a
specific "arbitrary algorithm".  Do you write your own quicksort everytime
you need to sort an array, or do you just call the built in sort method?


-- 
Tanner Burson
tanner.burson / gmail.com
http://tannerburson.com   <---Might even work one day...

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