[Haskell-cafe] Performance: MD5

[Duncan Coutts]

On Sun, 2008-05-18 at 11:20 +0100, Andrew Coppin wrote:

> > So, as Bulat says, explain why your code should have similar performance
> > to the C version.
> 
> Because it executes the same algorithm? I mean, there's essentially only 
> one way round that you can perform the MD5 algorithm, so it just comes 
> down to how efficiently you execute the steps involved.

Ah if only computation were that simple.

One might say that the ultimate perfect compiler would have this
property. However it's provably impossible. See for example the Full
Employment Theorem for Compiler Writers[1].

Duncan

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Full_employment_theorem