[ANSWERED] Calculation overhead: Javascript vs calculators

[jtsteph]

I have a quick questions about system overhead as I embark of a patch that will be replicated many dozens of times. Is the overhead of using Javascript greater for doing nestled math calculations vs stringing calculators together in a user actor to do the same calculation?

A couple of examples of a math formula that I am using would be:

B = ((T - 1) * 18) + ((P - 2) * 2) + 1

L=((P−2)mod3)×32+1

It much easier to put these together in Javascript, but I can do them with calculators if its quicker.

Thanks, J

[Juriaan]

@jtsteph

It depends on the amount of replications and this is such a deep technical question that we really have to dive deep into the codebase to figure this out for you :)

For example I dont know or JavaScript code that is in memory needs to be re-initiliazed.

[jtsteph]

@juriaan Ahaha. Understood. I thought it might be a simple answer. I know you have much more important things to do.  I will just try some stuff and see where I end up. Thanks for reponding.

[Juriaan]

@jtsteph

Happy to dive deeper with you, but I dont have an answer for you at this moment.

Will do some testing on my own and report back

[Woland]

@jtsteph

My gut feeling is that JavaScript is less work for the computer, but as @Juriaan said, I don't believe there's a "one-size-fits-all" answer in that it probably depends on the complexity of what you're doing and how you're doing it. 

@DusX might know better than me.

[DusX]

@jtsteph said:

It much easier to put these together in Javascript, but I can do them with calculators if its quicker

 When we first added the Javascript actor, I did a series of deep tests to determine exactly this. What I found was that I could use hundreds/thousands of JS actors doing math and still have good performance... and I could also use Thousands of the Calculator actors.

I suspect you will have very similar performance either way, however; I believe a series of Calculator actors will be slightly less heavy.

Due to the nature and easy of doing this in JS, I would personally use JS. But you could easily build both and use a global to switch between the methods used.. allowing you to make a change if performance required it.

[jtsteph]

@dusx Thanks. Given this, as most of my calculators are used in momentary situations (button press, dial turn) I think that Javascript makes more sense. It greatly simplifies my patching. If I run into a situation where they are updating as a stream, I'll try to use calculators. 

I appreciate your input. 

Best, J