Self 4.1 for Mac OS Its too slow to be used for anything useful.

alban alban.read at dial.pipex.com
Fri Nov 5 17:57:43 UTC 1999


After reading the blurbs on the self site about how fast self was (half as
fast as C & so on.) I downloaded it and tried it out on my iMac 233.
Its really very interesting but it is way to slow to use for anything.
I find it too slow to even mess about with.
Reading the release notes it seems that most of the optimizations that make
it so fast on SPARCs do not apply to the MAC OS port.
As an example I get a frame rate of about 95fps in squeak and 14 in self -
and that is the fastest I have seen. This is a shame. This self 4.1 port is
an Alpha release (for friends of self) so maybe someone who understands it
will accelerate things (at least 10 times faster would be a nice start.)
It really puts the speed of squeak in perspective though. squeak is fast.
Just out of curiosity does anyone know if self actually is fast on a SPARC?





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