Email conversation
| From | Jimmy Cerra |
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| To | Me |
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| Subject | Use a Semi Log Plot for Browser Speed Comparisons |
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| Date | 28 February 2005 01:50 |
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Mark Wilton-Jones,
You should use a semi log plot when graphing the browser speed
comparisons [1]. Many of the browsers seem to perform exponentially
slower than the next faster browser. So a logarithmic axis of time
would highlight the differences more than the linear scale you seem to
currently use.
| From | Me |
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| To | Jimmy Cerra |
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| Subject | Re: Use a Semi Log Plot for Browser Speed Comparisons |
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| Date | 28 February 2005 18:09 |
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Jimmy,
Agreed, since many of the results do produce an almost exponential output,
a logarithmic scale would be more appropriate. The problems I have with it
are this:
1. My graph script is not currently capable of producing a logarithmic
scale. I could rewrite it to produce that, if needed.
2. Much more importantly, I asked 20 people in a chatroom if they knew what
a logarithmic scale was. 2 out of 3 did not know what it was. If I used a
logarithmic scale, many of my readers would not realise what it represented,
and would assume it was a linear scale, and would not understand the
significance of the results.
Most of my readers will not be mathematicians/statisticians, they are just
normal users wanting to see some comparisons. In order to avoid confusion,
it is easier/better for them if I use a linear scale, even though that
makes the differences between the fastest browsers harder to see.
Mark 'Tarquin' Wilton-Jones - author of http://www.howtocreate.co.uk/