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    Why is it so bad if I use the word "benchmark" instead of "profile"? Is there any difference in the meaning? Would appreciate knowing the differences :) Commented Oct 18, 2010 at 19:19
  • +1 for quoting Donald Knuth and +200 for very insightful answer. Commented May 5, 2011 at 13:41
  • @nikic, When did Col say that it was bad to use the word "benchmark"?? Sounds like you're putting words into his mouth, or referencing something in the wrong place. Commented May 6, 2011 at 10:29
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    why is this so highly rated? It doesn't answer the question in any shape or form. -1 from me. Commented Dec 6, 2012 at 13:21
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    @NikiC The usual usage I've witnessed: benchmarking means somehow measuring or ranking the overall performance of piece of code in order to compare it to alternative solutions (like what Amien has done in his answer to this question, below), whereas profiling means finding out what parts of your code are responsible for whatever user-visible performance problem you're trying to solve. The difference is that profiling is about determining the cause of your performance problem, while benchmarking is about testing solutions to it. Commented Apr 25, 2014 at 22:37