[WriteLog] Super Check Partial slowdown - V11 vs V12

Wayne Wright w5xd at alum.mit.edu
Sat Dec 31 11:22:51 EST 2016


> Ever since I moved up to v12 I've noticed the SCP search speed would get progressively slower once a log went above about 3000 Q's.  

Version 12.11 changed the details of the way WriteLog searched the SCP
dta file and some users have reported significant performance
improvements in 12.11 and later. I decline to use any more definitive
language (e.g. "it got faster") because the number of CPU cycles
required to search the database hasn't really changed. All that really
changed in 12.11 was the order (i.e. prioritization) of what WriteLog
does when. All versions do, in fact, search the already-logged QSOs
along with the dta file, and the code change had to do with exactly how
WriteLog prioritizes the searching and draw-the-text-on-the-screen
sequencing.

For what its worth, I can offer anecdotal evidence that the changes in
12.11 will address the particular problem reported here. They were
inspired by exactly the report above, "it gets slower with logs above 3K
QSOs" and those that tested the changes were happy with the results. 
The observation that V11 was faster I will not argue with, but I will
note that such a performance difference was not likely due to a
difference in WriteLog's SCP source code between V11 and V12 as there
was almost none until 12.11.  But there were a lot of other things
changing that, taken together, could easily account for a large
difference between the two versions.

I categorize this problem as "bit rot." The problem was due to design
decisions in the SCP taken a very long time ago (probably 10 years ago
or more) and worked acceptably until other stuff changed. I did not
revisit them until somebody pointed out that it has rotted.

Wayne, W5XD



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