BBC BASIC for Windows: REM!Fast benchmark results

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REM!Fast benchmark results
Post by rtr2 on May 16^th, 2015, 11:02am

Those of you still using BB4W v5.95a are missing out on a valuable feature available only in v6.00a: the REM!Fast compiler directive. This directive principally benefits large programs with thousands of variables, but there can be a worthwhile speed improvement even in a small program.

This is illustrated by the trivial benchmark program below. It compares the timing of a static integer variable (generally the fastest kind of variable) with that of a regular integer variable. Here are the results I get (Intel Core i7 running at about 3 GHz):

Environment	Static integer	Ordinary integer
BB4W v6.00a IDE	160 cs	320 cs
Compiled (no REM!Fast)	160 cs	290 cs
Compiled with REM!Fast	160 cs	160 cs

So the REM!Fast made the ordinary integer variable just as fast as the static variety, and about 80% faster than without the directive.

Richard.

Code:

      REM!Fast number%
      TIME = 0 : FOR I% = 1 TO 5000000 : N% = N%+N%+N%+N%+N%+N%+N%+N%+N%+N% : NEXT : PRINT TIME
      TIME = 0 : FOR I% = 1 TO 5000000 : number% = number%+number%+number%+number%+number%+number%+number%+number%+number%+number% : NEXT : PRINT TIME