Re^6: Inconsistent Results with Benchmark

Since I don't need "exactly-the-same" results from my tests...

But you do!

You use 'benchmark' in your testing environment to see which sequence of Perl declarations and statements produce the *best* result. You determine the meaning of *best*, but if the results are almost, you're missing the value of 'benchmark'.

For example, you may be testing the use of an array or a hash within different subroutines, but the final result ( whatever you determine is the result ) must be the same. You may determine that the subroutines produce a file, and that file must be the exact same for all the different subroutines you 'benchmark'.

Humans ( including programmers ) don't have the exactness of computers and that's why we need a great script like 'benchmark' to run our different scripts hundreds/thousands/millions of times to give us the best sequence.

Almost isn't the same as equal!

Regards...Ed

"Well done is better than well said." - Benjamin Franklin

Comment on Re^6: Inconsistent Results with Benchmark

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Re^7: Inconsistent Results with Benchmark by benwills (Sexton) on Dec 09, 2014 at 21:14 UTC
I almost always firmly agree with you. But this is one of those times when "close" is fine at certain steps because there are multiple layers of analysis with the final result able to be produced in a number of ways due to some small overlaps in the text analysis. If you're curious, I can describe in more detail. A good analogy might be "how much should you clean up before the maid comes?"	[reply]