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Re: Offtopic: How to Design Programming Tests



Michael Vanier wrote:

> I would imagine that cache size and performance makes a huge difference
> here.  Iterating through a linked list tends to lead to jumping around in
> memory, thus (potentially) causing a lot of cache misses.  Arrays are less
> subject to this.  Thus one might say that current CPU and memory technology
> favor imperative languages which use arrays a lot :-(

Michael, did you ever consider that lists tend to be allocated
sequentially, and that a copying collector engenders contiguity?

Folks, please read Mark Reinhold's papers and thesis (PhD, MIT,
1993(?)).  He did all that work so we can avoid speculating.  And it's
fascinating stuff, too.

Shriram