Re: [Visualpython-users] Does Glowscript have numpy-like performance?

[Bruce S. <Bru...@nc...>]

Correction: I made my measurements with Chrome on a 64-bit Windows
machine, unaware that Chrome runs slowly on 64-bit machines because it
is a 32-bit application. Here are improved measurements, copied from
comments in the GlowScript program:

On a 32-bit Windows computer running Chrome: VPython gas.py with 100
atoms, dt = 1e-5, rate(100), no graphing: 100 iterations = 1 second.

The similar Glowsript program with same conditions: 100 iterations =
4.5 seconds.

/With rate(300), VPython is 0.35 s, GlowScript remains 4.5 s.

Presumably the big difference is the Python numpy library, which runs
at C speed, and which eliminates some explicit loops.

Note that on a 64-bit Windows computer Chrome runs this program half
as fast as on a 32-bit computer, because Chrome is a 32-bit
application. On 64-bit Windows Firefox is a 64-bit application and
runs the program twice as fast as Chrome.

Bruce Sherwood

On Thu, Jun 7, 2012 at 10:47 PM, Bruce Sherwood <Bru...@nc...> wrote:
> I've now converted the VPython demo program gas.py to GlowScript:
>
> http://www.glowscript.org/#/user/GlowScriptDemos/folder/Examples/program/HardSphereGas
>
> To run the program, you need to have a WebGL-enabled browser and a
> modern graphics card. For details, see the Help at glowscript.org.
>
> As for speed, this is what I found:
>
> VPython gas.py with 100 atoms, dt = 1e-5, no graphing: 100 iterations
> = 1.1 seconds. This similar Glowsript program with same conditions:
> 100 iterations = 11.7 seconds. Presumably the big difference is the
> Python numpy library, which runs at C speed, and which eliminates some
> explicit loops.
>
> Bruce Sherwood