An experiment to answer the question: How long will it take my computer to count to one billion?
All tests were run on a MacBook Pro, Retina, 15-inch, Late 2013
Processor: 2.6 GHz Intel Core i7
Memory: 16 GB 1600 MHz DDR3
Software: OS X 10.9.5
Running: java Counter
=====================
java version "1.6.0_65"
Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.6.0_65-b14-462-11M4609)
Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM (build 20.65-b04-462, mixed mode)
Count started: 0
Count finished: 1000000000
0.15 real 0.18 user 0.02 sys
Running: node counter.js
========================
v0.11.13
Count started: 0
Count finished: 1000000000
0.49 real 0.47 user 0.01 sys
Running: counter (c)
====================
Configured with: --prefix=/Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/usr --with-gxx-include-dir=/usr/include/c++/4.2.1
Apple LLVM version 6.0 (clang-600.0.54) (based on LLVM 3.5svn)
Target: x86_64-apple-darwin13.4.0
Thread model: posix
Count started: 0
Count finished: 1000000000
2.04 real 2.04 user 0.00 sys
Running: counter2 (cpp)
=======================
Configured with: --prefix=/Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/usr --with-gxx-include-dir=/usr/include/c++/4.2.1
Apple LLVM version 6.0 (clang-600.0.54) (based on LLVM 3.5svn)
Target: x86_64-apple-darwin13.4.0
Thread model: posix
Count started: 0
Count finished: 1000000000
2.02 real 2.02 user 0.00 sys
Running: ruby counter.rb
========================
ruby 2.0.0p481 (2014-05-08 revision 45883) [x86_64-darwin13.4.0]
Count started: 0
Count finished: 1000000000
17.46 real 17.45 user 0.01 sys
Running: php counter.php
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PHP 5.4.30 (cli) (built: Jul 29 2014 23:43:29)
Copyright (c) 1997-2014 The PHP Group
Zend Engine v2.4.0, Copyright (c) 1998-2014 Zend Technologies
Count started: 0
Count finished 1000000000
18.73 real 18.72 user 0.00 sys
Running: python3 counter.py
===========================
Python 3.4.2
Count started: 0
Count finished: 1000000000
117.47 real 117.44 user 0.02 sys