Why is Apache::File 'twice as fast' as IO::File ?

graq has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

From Apache::File:

Apache::File does two things: it provides an object-oriented interface to filehandles similar to Perl's standard IO::File class. While the Apache::File module does not provide all the functionality of IO::File, its methods are approximately twice as fast as the equivalent IO::File methods. Secondly, when you use Apache::File, it adds several new methods to the Apache class which provide support for handling files under the HTTP/1.1 protocol.

Does anyone know why this is, how the author comes to this conclusion?

[Graq]

Comment on Why is Apache::File 'twice as fast' as IO::File ?

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Re: Why is Apache::File 'twice as fast' as IO::File ? by derby (Abbot) on Jun 26, 2003 at 11:35 UTC
Apache::File is implemented in almost pure C (via perlxs). IO::File is a thin perl layer over the core perl file operations (open,close, seek,etc). On top of that, IO::File is part of a well crafted Object hierarchy and it inherits from IO::Handle and IO::Seekable (seeking btw is what's missing from Apache::File). -derby	[reply]
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