[Insight-developers] Should default compile mode be Debug, Release or RelWithDebInfo?

[Tom Vercauteren]

Hi Luis,

Thanks for the feedback.

>   1) Under Windows it is not possible to define from CMake
>     the default compilation mode to be used in Visual Studio.

That's right I keep forgetting about  Visual Studio...


>     Therefore, the outcome of this discussion can only be
>     a "recommendation" or "advice" to new users.

A recommendation would be fine, maybe in the "user guide" section
"Configuring ITK." I guess that this would be the first thing that
newcomers read.


>  2) Under Linux we could force a default compilation mode.
>     But again. Linux users for the most part, will know
>     how to properly use a compiler, and may not need this
>     to be forced upon them.

Well I am not so sure about Linux and Mac users knowing how to
properly use a compiler :)
In many university labs, Linux is the standard and new students have
to learn both how to use Linux and the compiler. But then this might
still be a minority when compared to windows users...


>   There are no "slow" algorithms,
>   There can only be algorithms that are "slower" than others.
>
>   That is, these claims must be based on comparisons with
>   other alternatives, and the comparisons must be clearly
>   defined to the point where they can be *replicated*.
>
>   A formal discussion about performance, should include
>   timing numbers resulting from profiling programs that
>   are available for others to replicate the results.
>
>   The Insight Journal will be an appropriate platform
>   for bringing these type of comparisons to the public
>   arena.

Of course I backup this claim! My point here was not to do a comparison at all.

As a side note, if a benchmark would be setup, we should definitely
compare to OpenCV+IPP. Below is a small such benchmark between vxl,
lti and opencv from the recent openCV book:
https://sourceforge.net/mailarchive/attachment.php?list_name=vxl-users&message_id=b550411c0810231048t6694742k58e5fc6a2aaeccf%40mail.gmail.com&counter=2


>   In ITK, you want to build with Release mode, which under
>   Linux will use the -O3 flag. Using the -O2 flag is not
>   enough for optimizing the execution of C++ templated code.

I agree on that.

Tom


>
>
>
>     Regards,
>
>
>      Luis
>
>
> ----------------------
> Tom Vercauteren wrote:
>>
>> Hi all,
>>
>> It seems that many new ITK users find ITK slow. Part of this is of
>> course based on some truth, but in many cases it ends up by
>> "OK, I didn't know I had to compile in Release mode."
>>
>> So I am wondering whether it wouldn't be easier if, by default, ITK
>> was build in Release mode (or maybe RelWithDebInfo).
>>
>> Indeed, I would expect that people that need ITK in debug mode are
>> people that know how to use a debugger and hence can manage to find
>> the adequate CMake option to switch to Debug.
>>
>> On the other hand newbies are less likely to know how to use a
>> debugger, won't tweak with CMake options and expect things to run
>> fast.
>>
>> Any thoughts?
>>
>> Tom
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>