Performance of algorithms in Squeak

Henrik Gedenryd Henrik.Gedenryd at lucs.lu.se
Fri Sep 24 08:53:37 UTC 1999


How well do the Squeak algorthms do in general (algorithmically, that is)?
How much effort has been put into them?

I looked at the new Heap implementation, and came to think about how well
optimized the quicksort implementation in Squeak is (Sedgewick's tricks,
swapping triplets, selection-sorting small pieces, etc.). Then I thought
more generally about the first question above.

 I also thought it might be a great Algorithms course assignment (college
professors out there looking for projects: hint! hint!) to evaluate and
improve algorithmic performance in Squeak, eg.:
    a) (find and) evaluate used algorithms,
    b) find out which classes & methods are heavily used and how, and thus
what changes would actually have a wider impact on  Squeak performance
       (my guess is the collection classes, hashing and so on), and
    c) implement better ones and evaluate them.

How come we always come up with such great ideas for what other people might
do?

Best regards,
Henrik





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