Ilnumerics performance under Mono vs VS

Question

I was wondering whether there is any information about ILNumerics performance under Mono vs Visual Studio.

Specifically, I am experimenting on a MacBook Pro 2010, running Windows 8, through bootcamp 5.0. I use the library through VS2012 (express edition). Do you have any data/info on how more/less efficient the same code would be using Mono under OS X (I am using version 10.8)? What about Mono under Windows (8)?

I have barely used Mono, since I like VS better, but the Mono solution would have the added value to be cross-platform and I could also produce code for OS-X, itself.

What pros and cons could you envision in adopting one platform or the other?

Thanks in advance and have a nice Sunday,

GL

Answer 1

Execution performance vastly depends on the concrete problem and its implementation. I do not want to give a general statement about the performance of the one compared to the other. In the past mono did tend to be a little behind the CLR. On the other hand mono has improved as well and now offers SIMD vector support (even if ILNumerics doesn't make use of it yet).

I suggest, you implement your solution and test it on several platforms / runtimes. I would be interested in your results as well!

One more note: mono can be used within Visual Studio as target platform. The Xamarin team offers a corresponding VS plugin. I haven't tested it though. Also, if you are into visualizations, keep in mind, mono favorites GTK over Windows.Forms. The ILNumerics visualization controls, however, use Windows.Forms. So you may have to install Windows.Forms on Linux manually.