new comer. performance question

[fetchoo]

Hi

I tried the following and compared the running time with CCL

> (let ((s)) (time (dotimes (i 1000000) (set 's (cons (sqrt i) s)))))
... do not stop
> (let ((s)) (time (dotimes (i 1000000) (push (sqrt i) s))))
111.93 milliseconds

with CCL
? (let ((s)) (time (dotimes (i 100000) (push (sqrt i) s))))
848 milliseconds

in CCL (setq x (cons a x)) == (push a x), but it looks like it is not the case for newlisp (i tried set/setf/setq)

why is this? how set/setq/setf/cons are implemented?

Kind regards
Taoufik

[Lutz]

In newLISP cons creates a new list which then in you example is placed into s.

push takes the reference of s and modifies s which is muchfaster because no list creation and copying takes place.