How to benchmark: the Measure-Explain-Test-Improve loop

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Author: Scherer, Gabriel
Format: Preprint
Published: 2026
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author Scherer, Gabriel
author_facet Scherer, Gabriel
contents I would like to share recommendations on how to do performance benchmarks for the purpose of computer science research evaluation. Research in my field (programming language research) often involves performance considerations, but it is typically not the main tool used to evaluate our research (typically we evaluate via formal statements and their proofs, experience writing large or interesting examples, or systematic comparison of expressivity, feature set, etc.). My impression is that, as a result, we tend to not do our performance evaluation very well. In the present document I will try to explain a methodology to do benchmarking correctly (I hope!). People with no former benchmarking experience should be able to build solid performance evaluation as part of their research. I explain the justification for each aspect along the way.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2605_02233
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle How to benchmark: the Measure-Explain-Test-Improve loop
Scherer, Gabriel
Programming Languages
I would like to share recommendations on how to do performance benchmarks for the purpose of computer science research evaluation. Research in my field (programming language research) often involves performance considerations, but it is typically not the main tool used to evaluate our research (typically we evaluate via formal statements and their proofs, experience writing large or interesting examples, or systematic comparison of expressivity, feature set, etc.). My impression is that, as a result, we tend to not do our performance evaluation very well. In the present document I will try to explain a methodology to do benchmarking correctly (I hope!). People with no former benchmarking experience should be able to build solid performance evaluation as part of their research. I explain the justification for each aspect along the way.
title How to benchmark: the Measure-Explain-Test-Improve loop
topic Programming Languages
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.02233