Node.js versus Lua

How the programs are written matters! Always look at the source code.

If the fastest programs are * hand-written vector instructions, does the host language matter? You might be more interested in the less optimised programs — more seconds, less gz source code.

fannkuch-redux
	elapsed				Mean or 95% CI
source	secs	mem	gz	make	cpu secs
Node.js #5	11.14	109,359	1320	0.11	44.12—44.75
Node.js #8	58.20	63,136	452	0.11	58.18
Lua	667.45	3,363	469		666.97
n-body
	elapsed				Mean or 95% CI
source	secs	mem	gz	make	cpu secs
Node.js #6	8.60	66,097	1274	0.11	8.62—8.69
Node.js #8	9.65	65,671	1173	0.12	9.66—9.77
Lua #2	220.15	3,289	1200		225.78—234.77
Lua #4	225.31	3,285	1312		229.08—235.54
Lua	251.60	3,281	1207		259.27—269.77
spectral-norm
	elapsed				Mean or 95% CI
source	secs	mem	gz	make	cpu secs
Node.js #7	5.40	65,417	420	0.14	5.40
Node.js	5.41	66,429	326	0.12	5.42—5.62
Node.js #6	1.61	114,618	1002	0.12	6.03
Node.js #8	6.53	66,380	355	0.11	6.53—6.67
Lua	78.75	3,686	335		78.70—78.87
mandelbrot
	elapsed				Mean or 95% CI
source	secs	mem	gz	make	cpu secs
Node.js #3	4.05	143,802	1128	0.07	15.87—15.93
Node.js #2	29.40	73,261	422	0.12	29.42
Node.js	68.65	67,793	380	0.11	70.52—72.09
Node.js #8	70.27	67,498	412	0.09	71.43—72.95
Lua	345.21	36,647	365		344.63
Lua #3	345.67	36,696	364		345.17
Lua #2	377.62	36,393	373		377.09
Lua #6	115.81	652,812	630		399.61
fasta
	elapsed				Mean or 95% CI
source	secs	mem	gz	make	cpu secs
* Node.js #5	2.55	117,953	2050	0.14	7.11—7.18
Node.js #8	19.16	73,728	742	0.10	19.41—19.52
Lua #2	24.12	3,695	1065		24.07—25.28
Lua #3	24.16	3,695	1065		24.28—25.66
Node.js	38.96	70,394	815	0.12	39.72—40.24
k-nucleotide
	elapsed				Mean or 95% CI
source	secs	mem	gz	make	cpu secs
Node.js #3	16.44	452,764	1817	0.12	44.48—45.05
Lua #2	99.19	612,901	620		99.36—99.94
Node.js #8	107.03	736,874	678	0.09	109.38—113.28
Node.js #2	37.75	1,894,363	941	0.11	113.17—114.37
Node.js	39.56	1,365,475	1011	0.11	115.80—116.78
reverse-complement
	elapsed				Mean or 95% CI
source	secs	mem	gz	make	cpu secs
* Node.js #2	15.52	764,158	1228	0.13	16.24—16.30
Lua #2	40.51	2,724,557	560		40.80—41.22
Lua #5	42.76	2,227,057	758		43.44—44.96
Lua #4	49.30	1,057,935	600		49.51—50.34
* Node.js #7		Bad Output
binary-trees
	elapsed				Mean or 95% CI
source	secs	mem	gz	make	cpu secs
Node.js #7	15.99	1,076,969	458	0.11	28.29—28.58
Node.js #6	8.54	1,278,456	752	0.12	30.88—31.03
Node.js #8	19.97	952,320	521	0.13	33.35—33.64
Node.js	8.95	1,401,799	717	0.11	33.88—34.17
Lua #2	141.62	982,589	418		142.08—143.60
Lua #3	82.77	1,783,443	690		166.40—166.97
Lua #4	48.21	2,606,240	670		178.90—179.68
pidigits
	elapsed				Mean or 95% CI
source	secs	mem	gz	make	cpu secs
Node.js #4	1.15	71,004	487	0.12	1.16
Node.js #2	12.19	101,380	405	0.12	12.18—12.39
Node.js #3	12.28	101,482	431	0.14	12.42—12.70
* Lua #7		Empty
* Lua #5		Empty
* Lua		Empty
regex-redux
	elapsed				Mean or 95% CI
source	secs	mem	gz	make	cpu secs
Node.js #3	4.31	839,913	675	0.12	5.33
Node.js #4	5.46	1,036,313	471	0.11	5.73—5.82
Lua		Empty
Node.js	v23.0.0
Lua	Lua 5.4.6 Copyright (C) 1994-2023 Lua.org, PUC-Rio