[fpc-pascal] Re: Why is Random(255) some 529x slower compared to Delphi7?

Tomas Hajny XHajT03 at hajny.biz
Thu Dec 8 18:11:24 CET 2011


On Thu, December 8, 2011 17:24, Jürgen Hestermann wrote:
> Schindler Karl-Michael schrieb:
>> How disgraceful is a replacement by a less accurate solution and how
>> about the grace to implement your own solution ;-)
>>
>>
> You miss the whole point. It's not a matter of coding effort but of
> backwards compatibility with existing code and also with expectations of
> people coming from Delphi/Turbo Pascal who not even question the speed
> (and accuracy) of the random() function. Of course, there is a need for
> both versions of random() but since decades I (and others) know it to be
> fast but unreliable. In FPC it suddenly turned into an accurate (which I
> didn't know so I would not even have used this reliablility) but slow
> version (which breaks my code).
>
> In other situations the Delphi compatibilty is pulled up even if the
> implementation is outrageous. But suddenly everybody wants to depart
> from Delphi. Strange.

Since when does the definition of "compatibility" include the same speed?
Could something become incompatible by being too fast too? I don't think
that FPC has ever claimed performing functionality at the same speed as
Delphi...

Tomas





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