BBS: Inland Empire Archive
Date: 04-13-92 (17:47) Number: 152
From: DON KROUSE Refer#: NONE
To: ALL Recvd: NO
Subj: Confusion Conf: (2) Quik_Bas
I had always heard that QuickBasic's LOCATE and PRINT routines were
very slow and that you should use ASM routines instead. I recently
posted a message showing that PEEK/POKE didn't seem to be too much
slower than an assembly routine. After posting that message I got
curious about how much slower using:
LOCATE X, Y
COLOR 7, 1
PRINT; Msg$
would be. I included LOCATE and COLOR because both the PEEK/POKE
and the ASM routines support it. I was supprised by the results!
It appears that for string lengths up to 3 or 4 characters long the
PEEK/POKE method is faster, from about 4 to 15 characters ASM is
faster and for string lengths longer than about 15 characters the
LOCATE/COLOR/PRINT method becomes significantly faster.
Notice that the PRINT method seems to have plateaus where the speed
remains consistent over a range of string lengths.
e.g. 30 to 34, 35 to 44, 45 to 62 and 63 to 80
Can someone explain what is going on? Why is PRINT faster?
The test shows the time in seconds that it took to do 5,000 loops
of each type of screen printing routine for strings from 1 to 80
characters in length. The last two columns show the speed of the
LOCATE/PRINT/COLOR routine relative to the assembly routine and the
PEEK/POKE routine relative to the assembly routine.
P L E A S E S E E T H E N E X T M E S S A G E A L S O
String --------- R O U T I N E ---------
Length LOCATE/PRINT PEEK/POKE ASM PRT/ASM POKE/ASM
1 2.58203 0.71094 0.82031 314.76% 86.67%
2 2.96094 1.15234 1.21094 244.52% 95.16%
3 3.30078 1.64063 1.65234 199.76% 99.29%
4 3.61719 2.14063 2.08984 173.08% 102.43%
5 3.94922 2.51953 2.47266 159.72% 101.90%
6 4.17969 3.01953 2.91016 143.62% 103.76%
7 4.61328 3.47266 3.30078 139.76% 105.21%
8 4.89063 3.89844 3.74219 130.69% 104.18%
9 5.16016 4.33984 4.16797 123.81% 104.12%
10 5.55078 4.83984 4.56250 121.66% 106.08%
11 5.54688 5.28125 5.00000 110.94% 105.62%
12 5.92969 5.71094 5.38672 110.08% 106.02%
13 6.37109 6.21094 5.82031 109.46% 106.71%
14 6.37109 6.60156 6.19922 102.77% 106.49%
15 6.92188 7.08984 6.65234 104.05% 106.58%
16 6.92188 7.57813 7.07813 97.79% 107.06%
17 7.58203 7.96875 7.46875 101.52% 106.69%
18 7.57813 8.46094 7.91016 95.80% 106.96%
19 7.58203 8.90234 8.29688 91.38% 107.30%
20 8.30078 9.39063 8.73828 94.99% 107.47%
21 8.28906 9.78125 9.17188 90.37% 106.64%
22 8.35156 10.26953 9.55078 87.44% 107.53%
23 9.23047 10.71094 9.99219 92.38% 107.19%
24 9.23047 11.15234 10.37891 88.93% 107.45%
25 9.28125 11.64063 10.82031 85.78% 107.58%
26 10.38672 12.07813 11.25781 92.26% 107.29%
27 10.37891 12.52734 11.64844 89.10% 107.55%
28 10.37891 13.01953 12.08984 85.85% 107.69%
29 10.60156 13.44922 12.46875 85.03% 107.86%
30 11.91797 13.89844 12.89844 92.40% 107.75%
31 11.91797 14.39063 13.35156 89.26% 107.78%
32 11.91797 14.78125 13.72656 86.82% 107.68%
33 11.91797 15.26953 14.17969 84.05% 107.69%
34 11.92188 15.71094 14.55078 81.93% 107.97%
35 13.89063 16.14844 15.00000 92.60% 107.66%
36 13.89844 16.58984 15.42969 90.08% 107.52%
37 13.90234 17.08203 15.82031 87.88% 107.98%
38 13.89844 17.51953 16.26172 85.47% 107.73%
39 13.89063 17.96094 16.63672 83.49% 107.96%
40 13.89844 18.45703 17.08203 81.36% 108.05%
41 13.89844 18.89844 17.51953 79.33% 107.87%
42 13.89844 19.33984 17.91016 77.60% 107.98%
43 13.90234 19.82813 18.33984 75.80% 108.12%
44 13.90234 20.20703 18.73047 74.22% 107.88%
45 16.63672 20.70703 19.17188 86.78% 108.01%
46 16.65234 21.19922 19.60938 84.92% 108.11%
47 16.64063 21.58984 20.00000 83.20% 107.95%
48 16.64063 22.08203 20.42969 81.45% 108.09%
49 16.64063 22.51953 20.81250 79.95% 108.20%
50 16.64063 22.96094 21.25000 78.31% 108.05%
51 16.64844 23.39063 21.69922 76.72% 107.79%
52 16.64063 23.89063 22.08203 75.36% 108.19%
53 16.65234 24.32813 22.51953 73.95% 108.03%
54 16.64063 24.76953 22.89844 72.67% 108.17%
55 16.64063 25.26953 23.33984 71.30% 108.27%
56 16.64844 25.64844 23.78125 70.01% 107.85%
57 16.63672 26.13672 24.16797 68.84% 108.15%
58 16.64063 26.58984 24.60156 67.64% 108.08%
59 16.63672 27.07813 24.99219 66.57% 108.35%
60 16.65234 27.51172 25.42969 65.48% 108.19%
61 16.64063 27.96094 25.86719 64.33% 108.09%
62 16.75000 28.39844 26.25000 63.81% 108.18%
continued in next message
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* Origin: Silver Lake Systems * Bothell, WA (1:343/58)
