Why is print() so expensive?

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Bindie
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Why is print() so expensive?

Post by Bindie »

Printing to the console, why so expensive? Curious.
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s-ol
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Re: Why is print() so expensive?

Post by s-ol »

Bindie wrote:Printing to the console, why so expensive? Curious.
Because, when you disable IO buffering, it has to push every single character through all the OS' rusty pipes.

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Code: Select all

print( type(love) )
if false then
  baby:hurt(me)
end
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undef
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Re: Why is print() so expensive?

Post by undef »

Expensive compared to what?
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Bindie
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Re: Why is print() so expensive?

Post by Bindie »

S0ll0s: Right, since no memory is available.

Undef: Functions in general, math.random() kinda
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s-ol
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Re: Why is print() so expensive?

Post by s-ol »

Bindie wrote:S0ll0s: Right, since no memory is available.
is that supposed to be sarcasm? Unbuffered IO is generally expensive.

s-ol.nu /blog  -  p.s-ol.be /st8.lua  -  g.s-ol.be /gtglg /curcur

Code: Select all

print( type(love) )
if false then
  baby:hurt(me)
end
Top
Bindie
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Re: Why is print() so expensive?

Post by Bindie »

Naw, no no. I didn't understand buffering had to do with memory. No memory = printing every single character then next and so on...
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I~=Spam
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Re: Why is print() so expensive?

Post by I~=Spam »

Out of curiosity... why is unbuffered io used? Is it so that if love crashes the console will still have all output? Or is it something else?
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undef
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Re: Why is print() so expensive?

Post by undef »

Printing is mainly used for debugging purposes, so you usually wouldn't print out hundreds of lines of code per frame.
Therefore it isn't regarded as an efficiency impairment for game development.
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I~=Spam
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Re: Why is print() so expensive?

Post by I~=Spam »

undef wrote:Printing is mainly used for debugging purposes, so you usually wouldn't print out hundreds of lines of code per frame.
Therefore it isn't regarded as an efficiency impairment for game development.
Ahh that makes sense.
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s-ol
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Re: Why is print() so expensive?

Post by s-ol »

I~=Spam wrote:Out of curiosity... why is unbuffered io used? Is it so that if love crashes the console will still have all output? Or is it something else?
Plus not having console debug output during tests running sucks a lot.

s-ol.nu /blog  -  p.s-ol.be /st8.lua  -  g.s-ol.be /gtglg /curcur

Code: Select all

print( type(love) )
if false then
  baby:hurt(me)
end
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