benchmark

Our little programming contest was fun and we can learn something about best practices in javascript algorithm performance. I have prepared some micro benchmarks for common code sniplets to find the best variant. After the section with the micro benchmarks you can find the best-performed solution by running the JSLitmus test and browse through the javascript code. And yes - our co-author Matthias had the best solution with factor 20-35 faster than the clean code variant. No solution is close with the performance to Matthias' solution!

Knowing some javascript performance hints are importend. The different javascript interpreter with Just-In-Time-Optimizer can offer some surprise in the following basic code examples.

• Adding Numbers to an Array
• Using code in loop-header or Body
• Round down a Number
• Using linear Array or Object (=hashmap) for caching Numbers
• Find a substring in a String

Read more

I found two ALGOL sniplets for the forfeit game contest. My ALGOL 60 programming book (happy birthday for the ALGOL programming language) offer for every problem the question, a problem analysis, a code structure chart, the code solution and the executing time for the ZUSE 23 computer (see a very similar Z22 on wikipedia). I converted the fast solution for the game of forfeit from ALGOL to javascript without optimizations and benchmarked it.

Opera 10.63 vs. Chrome 7/8 vs. Firefox 3.6.12/4b7

I will start with the results from the converted ALGOL solution. The new javascript engine Jägermonkey with the firefox 4b7 is a real competitor for other fast javascript engines! And the ALGOL version is (mostly) better than the clean code version. The absolute numbers are generated on my own mini-pc and used for comparing with the clean code solution.

The 1:1 conversion of the ALGOL code runs on my Intel Atom N270 3.5 million times faster than on the original ZUSE Z23.Read more

Intro: A little excursion to code more functional with javascript. It contain examples with the classic for-loop-code, the more functional variant with Underscore.js and the HTML5 functional enhancements. It does not explain the basic idea of functional programming - it shows the differences in code examples.

motivation

Last week I got access on the address book from Matthias' well known entry Jennifer. But I had no time to scan all the other girls addresses. With many lines of source code filled with for-loop-code - no way. I have to find a smarter coding way to scan the address book.Read more

The object access benchmarks last weeks was not surprising but a factor 5 between access "obj.a" and "obj.getA()" is interesting. In this second part I check the access time for properties on objects, created with ECMAScript 3 getter/setter and with the ECMAScript 5 Object.defineProperty variant (works on IE8+, FF3.7+, newest Webkit and Chrome 5) - see more on ECMAScript 5 compatibility table. Oliver asked to add getter tests - and the results produce differences with factor 15-100.Read more