Performance Comparison Between Python and Rust

This repositroy contains files to compare the performance of Python and Rust.

On an average, Rust was found to be ~5-10 times faster than python for the given scenario.

The comparisons are logged automatically in the summary.md file for easy access.

Created on 22-Oct-2023

Overview

The repository has the main.py and main.rs files in the codes directory which perform the same operation.

The codes print the amount of time they take to calculate the factorial of 31 using iterative process.

The test_main code is used to call the main files multiple times and calcuates the average execution times.

The file logs these comparisons in the summary.md file for future referece.

Github actions automatically runs the test_main.py which triggers the comparison whenever there is an update in the repository.

Instructions

Create a Codespace on main which will initialize the enviroment with the required packages and settings to execute the codes.

The files can be executed individually or via the test_main file.

To Execute Python Version:

python ./codes/main.py

To Execute Rust Version:

cargo run --manifest-path ./codes/Cargo.toml

Note: The '.codes/' can be ommited if the programs are being executed from the codes directory

Sample Execution and Test

Testing: "make test" command is run to trigger the performace comparison.

Sample Output: the test file calls the main functions 5 times and calcualtes the average performances, Rust is found to be ~9 times faster that Python:

Contents

1. summary.md

contains the performace comparison summary between Python and Rust, it is automatically updated whenever test_main.py file is used.

2. README.md

contains the information about the repository and instructions for using it

3. requirements.txt

contains the list of packages and libraries which are required for running the project. These are intalled and used in the virtual environment and Github actions.

4. .github/workflows

github actions are used to automate the following processes whenever a change is made to the files in the repository:

• install : installs the packages and libraries mentioned in the requirements.txt

• test : uses pytest to trigger the test_main.py file

  Note: this action automatically triggers the comparison operations whenever any changes are made in the repository

• format : uses black to format the python files and rustfmt to format Rust files

• lint : uses ruff to lint the python files and clippy to lint Rust files

Note -if all the processes run successfully the following output will be visible in github actions:

5. Makefile

contains the instructions and sequences for the processes used in github actions and .devcontainer for creating the virtual environment

6. .devcontainer

contains the dockerfile and devcontainer.json files which are used to build and define the setting of the virtual environment (codespaces - python) for running the codes.

7. setup.sh

contains the terminal commands to install and setup Rust.

8. resources

contains additonal files which are used in the README