CGI is not anymore a major use case for Perl. The modern Perl web apps are built on PSGI and production deployment is as a long lived Perl process.
I wouldn't be surprised to learn that Perl startup time has drifted. Need benchmark.
I wouldn't be surprised to learn that Perl startup time has drifted. Need benchmark.
Some perl5 lover should take the time to compile all those 5.6 to 5.42 versions on the same host OS/CPU and do a performance comparison and create a nice chart for the world to trap and maybe correct such performance regressions. I just tried getting 5.8.9 to compile on modern Linux with gcc-15, and it seemed like a real PITA. (Earlier didn't even ./Configure -des right.)
zsh# rei=(chrt 99 taskset -c 2-3 env -i HOME=$HOME PATH=/bin)
zsh# tim=(-k2 -o14 -n14 -m14)
# Set 1
zsh# $rei tim $tim './perl-5.8.9</n' 'perl-5.42.0</n'
218.5 +- 1.9 μs (AlreadySubtracted)Overhead
626 +- 14 μs ./perl-5.8.9</n
953.5 +- 8.6 μs perl-5.42.0</n
# Set 2
zsh# $rei tim $tim './perl-5.8.9</n' 'perl-5.42.0</n'
247 +- 15 μs (AlreadySubtracted)Overhead
633 +- 26 μs ./perl-5.8.9</n
989 +- 25 μs perl-5.42.0</n
# Consistency check - well within 2 sigma for both
zsh# a (989 +- 25)-(953.5 +- 8.6)
36 +- 26
zsh# a (626 +- 14)-(633 +- 26)
-7 +- 30
# Final report; weighted means to maximize precision
zsh# a mean(989 +- 25,953.5 +- 8.6)/mean(626 +- 14,633 +- 26)
1.525 +- 0.033