OPERATION-HANDLED-P slows READ

[SWM@SAPSUCKER.SCRC.Symbolics.COM (Scott McKay)]

    Date: Mon, 23 Apr 90 17:24:47 -0400
    From: kanderso@DINO.BBN.COM


    READing from a string is about twice as fast than reading from a
    stream.  In fact, reading each line of a file into a string and then
    reading from the string is twice as fast as just reading the file.
    The main difference is due to (SEND STREAM :OPERATION-HANDLED-P :READ)
    which is called by an internal read function.  In a typical file
    stream this requires MEMBERing down a list of 92 items, while when
    reading from a string, the list is quite short.

    So by having streams optimize this case you can double the performance
    of READ.  In the 7.2 world i'm using, at least, no stream handles the
    :READ message.

Hasn't there already been a long discussion of this on SLUG already?
READ is much faster in 7.4 and 8.0 than it was in 7.2.  I honestly don't
know if having streams support :READ directly will make a large
difference in 8.0.  Since 8.0 starts shipping pretty soon, you won't
have much longer to wait to find out...