> I've noticed that BASIC programs running under the Microsoft QuickBASIC
> 4.5 interpreter run quite a bit faster than programs compiled by the QB
> 4.5 compiler. Strange, huh?
I'm not sure I know what you mean by a QB compiler. I have used (and
continue to use) both the QBasic interpreter, that comes free with later
versions of BASIC, and the QuickBasic compiler, which was a separate,
stand alone purchase, and a full compiler. QBasic is an Interpreter that
runs *.bas files the same way that a Perl interpreter runs scripts, which
is a line at a time, when they are called, without any compilation.
QuickBasic can also run scripts in this manner. It is also a full
compiler and linker, and can produce *.obj and *.exe files. When
compiling, you get to choose whether you want the file compiled to stand
alone, or to use the brun.exe and brun.lib runtime modules, which are
part of the package, and really speed up a program. I have compiled the
same programs, first to use brun.exe, and then to be stand alone, and the
stand alone versions are a lot bigger, and a lot slower (this is
especially noticeable in graphics shows, like fractal displays). Of
course, if you are going to run the brun version of the program, the brun
files have to be on the computer, so it is nice for utilities you are
running on your own box, but not much use, for exporting to other
computers.
-wittig
http://www.robertwittig.com/
A business is as honest as its advertisements.
.
Received on Sun Oct 27 2002 - 04:56:01 GMT