benchmark -- accurate timing of execution

Synopsis

Usage:
benchmark s
Inputs:
- s, a string, a string containing Macaulay 2 code
Outputs:
- a real number, the number of seconds it takes to evaluate the code in s

Produces an accurate timing for the code contained in the string s. The value returned is the number of seconds.

i1 : benchmark "2^500"

o1 = 2.57968*10^-6

o1 : RR

The snippet of code provided will be run enough times to register meaningfully on the clock, and the garbage collector will be called beforehand.