For benchmarking 50,000 messages the following two scripts were made, based on the one found here.

$ diff hobo_test.pl threads_test.pl

5,6c5,6
< use MCE::Hobo;
< use Foo::Inbox2;
---
> use threads;
> use Foo::Inbox4;
11c11
< my $inbox = Foo::Inbox2->new( @names );
---
> my $inbox = Foo::Inbox4->new( @names );
38,39c38,39
< MCE::Hobo->create(\&foo, $_) for @names;
< MCE::Hobo->waitall;
---
> threads->create(\&foo, $_) for @names;
> $_->join() for threads->list();
[download]

Foo::Inbox2 via MCE::Hobo + MCE::Shared->queue 50k test

use strict;
use warnings;

use MCE::Hobo;
use Foo::Inbox2;
use List::Util qw( shuffle );
use Time::HiRes qw( time );

my @names = shuffle qw/ Barny Betty Fred Wilma /;
my $inbox = Foo::Inbox2->new( @names );
my $start = time;

$| = 1;

sub foo {
  my $name  = shift;
  my $count = 0;

  # remove my name from the list
  @names = grep { $_ ne $name } shuffle @names;

  # send greeting
  $inbox->send($name, \@names, 'Hello');

  while ( my ($from, $data) = $inbox->recv($name) ) {
    # display the message received
    printf "%-5s received %s from %s\n", $name, $data->[0], $from;

    # send greeting again
    $inbox->send($name, \@names, 'Hello') if $count < 4167;

    # eventually stop benchmarking
    last if ++$count == 12500;
  }
}

MCE::Hobo->create(\&foo, $_) for @names;
MCE::Hobo->waitall;

printf {*STDERR} "duration: %0.03f seconds\n", time - $start;
[download]

Foo::Inbox4 via threads + Thread::Queue 50k test

use strict;
use warnings;

use threads;
use Foo::Inbox4;
use List::Util qw( shuffle );
use Time::HiRes qw( time );

my @names = shuffle qw/ Barny Betty Fred Wilma /;
my $inbox = Foo::Inbox4->new( @names );
my $start = time;

$| = 1;

sub foo {
  my $name  = shift;
  my $count = 0;

  # remove my name from the list
  @names = grep { $_ ne $name } shuffle @names;

  # send greeting
  $inbox->send($name, \@names, 'Hello');

  while ( my ($from, $data) = $inbox->recv($name) ) {
    # display the message received
    printf "%-5s received %s from %s\n", $name, $data->[0], $from;

    # send greeting again
    $inbox->send($name, \@names, 'Hello') if $count < 4167;

    # eventually stop benchmarking
    last if ++$count == 12500;
  }
}

threads->create(\&foo, $_) for @names;
$_->join() for threads->list();

printf {*STDERR} "duration: %0.03f seconds\n", time - $start;
[download]

Update: Added results for MCE::Inbox which will ship with MCE::Shared 1.827 on release day. It is Inbox2 with optimizations.

Results from Mac OS X and Cent OS 7.

# Mac OS X ( Perl v5.18.2 )

$ perl foo1.pl | wc -l      # Foo::Inbox
duration:  0.690 seconds
   50000

$ perl inbox.pl | wc -l     # MCE::Inbox w/ blocking capability
duration:  0.721 seconds
   50000

$ perl foo2.pl | wc -l      # MCE::Shared->queue
duration:  0.789 seconds
   50000

$ perl foo4.pl | wc -l      # Thread::Queue
duration:  5.735 seconds
   50000


# CentOS 7 VM ( Perl v5.16.3 )

$ perl foo1.pl | wc -l      # Foo::Inbox
duration:  0.834 seconds
   50000

$ perl inbox.pl | wc -l     # MCE::Inbox w/ blocking capability
duration:  0.726 seconds
   50000

$ perl foo2.pl | wc -l      # MCE::Shared->queue
duration:  0.945 seconds
   50000

$ perl foo4.pl | wc -l      # Thread::Queue
duration:  3.020 seconds
   50000
[download]

Results from Cygwin and Strawberry Perl.

# Windows ( Cygwin Perl v5.22.3 )

$ perl foo1.pl | wc -l      # Foo::Inbox
duration:  1.825 seconds
   50000

$ perl inbox.pl | wc -l     # MCE::Inbox w/ blocking capability
duration:  2.059 seconds
   50000

$ perl foo2.pl | wc -l      # MCE::Shared->queue
duration:  2.387 seconds
   50000

$ perl foo4.pl | wc -l      # Thread::Queue
duration: 24.086 seconds
   50000


# Windows ( Strawberry Perl v5.22.2.1 )

$ perl foo1.pl > nul        # Foo::Inbox
duration:  1.570 seconds

$ perl inbox.pl > nul       # MCE::Inbox w/ blocking capability
duration:  1.664 seconds

$ perl foo2.pl > nul        # MCE::Shared->queue
duration:  2.120 seconds

$ perl foo4.pl > nul        # Thread::Queue
duration:  2.886 seconds
[download]

Results from FreeBSD and Solaris.

# TrueOS 10.0 ( FreeBSD, Perl 5.16.3 )

$ perl foo1.pl | wc -l      # Foo::Inbox
duration:  0.910 seconds
   50000

$ perl inbox.pl | wc -l     # MCE::Inbox w/ blocking capability
duration:  0.875 seconds
   50000

$ perl foo2.pl | wc -l      # MCE::Shared->queue
duration:  1.107 seconds
   50000

$ perl foo4.pl | wc -l      # Thread::Queue
duration:  0.797 seconds
   50000


# Solaris 11.2 ( Perl 5.22.2 )

$ perl foo1.pl | wc -l      # Foo::Inbox
duration:  1.319 seconds
   50000

$ perl inbox.pl | wc -l     # MCE::Inbox w/ blocking capability
duration:  1.344 seconds
   50000

$ perl foo2.pl | wc -l      # MCE::Shared->queue
duration:  1.525 seconds
   50000

$ perl foo4.pl | wc -l      # Thread::Queue
duration:  1.822 seconds
   50000
[download]

From this testing, Threads + Thread::Queue runs better on FreeBSD and Solaris compared to others.

Foo::Inbox lacks blocking capability, thus has lower latency. However, it may run much slower when the Inbox isn't busy.

Regards, Mario