LismMachine File Reading.

["Robert W. Kerns" <RWK%fuji.ila.dialnet.symbolics.com@RELAY.CS.NET>]

    Date: Wed, 24 Jan 1990 9:53:01 PST
    From: Keith Price <price%iris.usc.edu@usc.edu>
    File opening time of 2.8 seconds is irrelevant in a total time of 100+
    seconds when we are comparing to other systems with times of 50%.  That is
    why I used large files.

Ah, 100+ seconds is a bit different than 10+ seconds, which is what
you said in your earlier message.  Just a typo, I presume.
And I didn't keep the original table of times, so I couldn't
go back and check it.

Still, it's good practice to eliminate unnecessary variations,
or to state sufficient conditions to allow repeatability.  In
this case it's easy enough, too; just put the call to TIME inside
the WITH-OPEN-FILE.

    More interesting would be the effect of *read-suppress* since the files do
    not contain anything that should be affected by it.  (This would be for all
    systems.)  Unfortunately, it has other strange interactions and does not
    work.
It's not what it's intended for...