CSCI 3394

Scripting Languages

Fall 2008

Experiment Three

The third experiment of the semester is to test the capabilities of each of the scripting languages under extreme conditions.

We shall choose a server machine and write scripts for it which will provide access to certain resources. We shall write scripts for a number of client machines which will access the server machine requesting resources.

In a suitable contrived experiment, each of the client machines might request 2ⁿ random numbers from the server.

Investigate the use of cron to get the client machines to each request the resource from the server machine at the same time.

Write the client and server scripts in each of the four languages under discussion.

Vary the size of the request as well as the number of machines requesting service. Vary data set sizes from 2¹⁰ through 2²⁰. Use 2, 4, 8, and 16 client machines.

Provide charts of execution times comparing clients and data set sizes. Discuss which language is ‘best’ taking into account execution times, ease of use, programmability, etc.