in reply to Re^2: Challenge: Construct an unpack string
in thread Challenge: Construct an unpack string

If you hardcode the template to unpack, of course it will be quicker--but when the input data changes, the template won't without programmer intervention--which kinda negates the value of the benchmark.

Actually, your entire benchmark is pretty suspect and you are comparing a bunch of entirely different things:

  1. A hardcoded unpack.
  3. Two different implementations of the original challenge: parsing the data according to the contents of the input structure.
  4. Three other bit of random code that do nothing in particlar to do with the problem--your "setup" stuff.

So, no. I wouldn't agree that this is a valid benchmark :) Sorry.

Also, please use cmpthese for benchmarking, the output from timethese is all but unintelligable.

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