Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!clyde!att!rutgers!mailrus!eecae!cps3xx!rang
From: rang@cpsin3.cps.msu.edu (Anton Rang)
Newsgroups: comp.arch
Subject: Re: BENCHMARKS AND LIPS
Message-ID: <1219@cps3xx.UUCP>
Date: 2 Dec 88 03:02:29 GMT
References: <1740MLWLG@CUNYVM> <746@quintus.UUCP> <595@mqcomp.oz>
Sender: usenet@cps3xx.UUCP
Reply-To: rang@cpswh.cps.msu.edu (Anton Rang)
Organization: Michigan State University, Computer Science Dept.
Lines: 32
In-reply-to: s8504867@mqcomp.oz's message of 30 Nov 88 08:16:28 GMT

In article <595@mqcomp.oz>, John Gardner (s8504867@mqcomp.mq.oz) writes:
>In article <746@quintus.UUCP> ok@quintus.UUCP (Richard A. O'Keefe) writes:
>>In article <1740MLWLG@CUNYVM> MLWLG@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU writes:
>>>THAT IS USED?
>>
>>Logical Inferences Per Second is a property of a _Prolog_ implementation,
>>
>
>Come off the grass.  That's like saying MIPS are a property of C
>only.  While it is nice to do benchmarks by only varying what you want to
>compare, it is certainly valid to calculate LIPS using any theorem prover,
>not just prolog.

  It's not valid to calculate and compare them using any theorem
prover.  The term "LIPS" as it is usually used refers to the internal
workings of PROLOG (unification, etc.).  While it would be possible to
find LIPS with any theorem prover, the results couldn't be compared
against PROLOG ones.
  The basic problem is the definition of a "logical inference".
PROLOG has one; other languages would have others.  MIPS is a property
of a system, not a language, because you can always look at the system
and count the number of instructions it's running!  You can't look and
just say "Oh, that's...346 logical inferences" for any given proof,
because there are a very large number of ways to handle it.  Even
PROLOG people don't always agree on the LIPS count for a program.
  The "LIPS" term is misleading, but it *is* a property of PROLOG (at
least, as it is currently used).

+---------------------------+------------------------+----------------------+
| Anton Rang (grad student) | "VMS Forever!"         | "Do worry...be SAD!" |
| Michigan State University | rang@cpswh.cps.msu.edu |                      |
+---------------------------+------------------------+----------------------+