RE: Tracing Programs

Great suggestion Barbara.  I will look into that.

Christopher K. Bipes    mailto:ChrisB@Cross-Check.com
Sr. Programmer/Analyst  mailto:Chris_Bipes@Yahoo.com
CrossCheck, Inc.        http://www.cross-check.com
6119 State Farm Drive   Phone: 707 586-0551 x 1102
Rohnert Park CA  94928  Fax: 707 586-1884

If consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, only geniuses work here.
Karen Herbelin - Readers Digest 3/2000

-----Original Message-----
From: bmorris@ca.ibm.com [mailto:bmorris@ca.ibm.com]
Sent: Wednesday, October 25, 2000 2:48 PM
To: MIDRANGE-L@midrange.com
Subject: Re: Tracing Programs

Chris, even without a dedicated machine, you should be able to test this.
Create two programs each containing just the two versions of the code, in a
loop (make sure the code within the loop is just what's needed to do the
tasks
being compared - no unnecessary calls etc).  Have the loop iterate enough
times for the program to run at least 5 minutes.  For this type of program
I always pass the number of times in as a parameter (a perfect use for a
15,5
parm :).

To reduce the effect of other jobs, run the programs alternately 3 or 4
times.
Don't be tempted to take an average of the times taken for each case;
instead
you should compare the best times for each case.  (If the times vary
wildly,
you're right and I'm wrong and you'll have to find another way ...)

To increase your satisfaction that your tests are accurate, try doing the
tests like this (assuming 10000 lets your programs run at least a couple of
minutes):
  call pgma  10000
  call pgmb  10000
  call pgma  50000
  call pgmb  50000
  call pgma 100000
  call pgmb 100000

If pgma's times are x 5x and 10x and pgmb's times are y 5y and 10y, then
you
can be quite sure that it's reasonable to compare x and y.

Barbara Morris
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