Benchmark v1.1 by Solistra

Summary

This script provides a simple benchmarking tool similar to the Benchmark module present in the Ruby standard library. Essentially, this script allows you to run specified code and objectively determine its execution speed. This is primarily a scripter's tool.

Usage

This script is intended to be used entirely through the benchmarking method SES::Benchmark.measure. This method takes the number of iterations to run the passed block as an argument -- if no argument is given, the block is run SES::Benchmark.iterations times (10,000 by default, though this can be redefined in the configuration area or during runtime). For example, we could measure Array#pop 100,000 times like so:

SES::Benchmark.measure(100_000) { [1, 2, 3].pop }

The SES::Benchmark.measure method can also report on any number of ways to potentially run code -- very useful for benchmarking alternative methods of attaining the same result. To do so, simply pass a block that takes a single argument; the argument passed yields a Reporter instance with the report method. For example, this is how we could benchmark Array#sort versus Array#sort!:

SES::Benchmark.measure do |x|
  a = (1..100).to_a.shuffle!
  x.report('Array#sort')  { a.sort  }
  x.report('Array#sort!') { a.sort! }
end

NOTE: Reports are executed in the order that they are given -- running the code above with the report calls switched would produce misleading results. (Labels for reports are also optional, but highly recommended.)

In addition to this, you may run individual reports a different number of times than the other reports in a measure block. For instance, we could default to running iterations 100,000 times while running a single report for 200,000 like so (using the previous example):

SES::Benchmark.iterations = 100_000
SES::Benchmark.measure do |x|
  a = (1..100).to_a.shuffle!
  x.report('Array#sort')           { a.sort  }
  x.report('Array#sort!', 200_000) { a.sort! }
end

License

This script is made available under the terms of the MIT Expat license. View this page for more detailed information.

Installation

Place this script below the SES Core (v2.0) script (if you are using it) or the Materials header, but above all other custom scripts. This script does not require the SES Core (v2.0), but it is recommended.