Dear Brad,

Benchmark seems to show that doing any the following operations below with a and b as argument compared to doing the same with c and d as argument is about the following X slower:

*: 179x (0.23345 vs 0.0013 ms per operation)

/: 2.7x (0.23269 vs 0.0889 ms per operation)

+: 202x (0.12112 vs 0.0006 ms per operation)

-: 200x (0.12008 vs 0.0006 ms per operation)

I guess this is because in the further case, the respective operation involves the calculation of a lowest common denominator for the divisor (i.e. what makes (+ 1/3 (+ 3/4 5/6)) and (+ (+ 1/3 3/4) 5/6) get the same result)?

If so, I guess we can be clear that primarily for * + - , in batch calculations there'd be value in having the ability to perform those operations without that calculation, and then making a separate operation for that function - or are the algorithms such that postponing wouldn't actually be for the win?

At what location in Gambit's sources is this calculation performed?

Thanks,

Mikael

(define (r) (random-integer (expt 10 100)))

(define a (/ (r) (r)))

(define b (/ (r) (r)))

(define c (r))

(define d (r))