Re: Form is really slow and fast for me. What could this mean?

Richard Fateman wrote:

It is not necessary to have two .sorts in there. I took out the first one, and it was just as fast. Why should this help?

I tried this:

Symbols x,y,z; Local q=(1+x+y+z)^20*(1+(1+z+x+y)^20)-(1+x+z+y)^20*(1+(1+z+x+y)^20); Print; .end

and it took about twice as long as the longest time. (190 seconds)

I also tried Local q=(1+x+y+z)^40 and that takes about .98 seconds Local q=(1+x+y+z)^40- (1+x+z+y)^40 and that takes about 1.7 seconds.

What is going on?

Taking the power is much faster simply because you do *not* apply the chinese powering algorithm as a simple cost analysis shows for any multivariate polynomial. Just make the 40* multiplication loop.