Editing Algorithmic efficiency (section)

===Measuring performance===
For new versions of software or to provide comparisons with competitive systems, [[benchmark (computing)|benchmark]]s are sometimes used, which assist with gauging an algorithms relative performance. If a new [[sorting algorithm|sort algorithm]] is produced, for example, it can be compared with its predecessors to ensure that at least it is efficient as before with known data, taking into consideration any functional improvements. Benchmarks can be used by customers when comparing various products from alternative suppliers to estimate which product will best suit their specific requirements in terms of functionality and performance. For example, in the [[mainframe computer|mainframe]] world certain proprietary [[Mainframe sort merge|sort]] products from independent software companies such as [[Syncsort]] compete with products from the major suppliers such as [[IBM]] for speed.

Some benchmarks provide opportunities for producing an analysis comparing the relative speed of various compiled and interpreted languages for example<ref name="fourmilab.ch" /><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.roylongbottom.org.uk/whetstone.htm#anchorPC2 |title=Whetstone Benchmark History |publisher=Roylongbottom.org.uk |access-date=14 December 2011}}</ref>
and [[The Computer Language Benchmarks Game]] compares the performance of implementations of typical programming problems in several programming languages.

Even creating "[[do it yourself]]" benchmarks can demonstrate the relative performance of different programming languages, using a variety of user specified criteria. This is quite simple, as a "Nine language performance roundup" by Christopher W. Cowell-Shah demonstrates by example.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.osnews.com/story/5602|title=Nine Language Performance Round-up: Benchmarking Math & File I/O|author=OSNews Staff|website=osnews.com|access-date=2018-09-18}}</ref>