…and the result is a very narrowly-targeted solution…

because clearly the regular expression engine has a lot more overhead. Nevertheless, the 6 to 8 times faster really surprised me, I didn’t expect that much of a difference! I think another good lesson here is use the right tool for the job. Or in other words, as you stated, in most cases it doesn’t make sense to roll your own.

Thanks Jim!

The drawback with a lock (aside from single threading your code) is that it is a more expensive operation — admittedly that difference is purely academic in most cases.

But there isn’t an Interlocked.Compare. At least not in the .NET Framework’s Interlocked class. See http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.threading.interlocked.aspx

Thread.MemoryBarrier would work, but a lock would be easier.

Also, couldn’t you still use interlocked.compare() — only with a constant to better define intent, or is that too confusing?

I’ve done a few more pieces since my last post, including a neat chihuahua carving but have not had the opportunity to post it yet…will try and get some new pictures up soon. The ebony cat is a particular favorite of the ones I’ve done…ebony is easily my favorite wood to work with, though the sawing part is always pretty obnoxious due to the dust, and though it’s pretty rough on blades.

Looking through your stuff a bit, I’m impressed with the neat bird and dog carvings. Very cool and full of personality! And the “whimsies” remind me of some of the things my (hobby machinist) boyfriend does with metal. He has cut out little “cubes within cubes” on a lathe and they’re quite nifty. But in any event…here’s to more completed projects that involve carving only wood and/or metal, not ourselves! :P I have had some injuries in my time but mainly little nicks and scratches…this whole 3-inch laceration business still seems like something that ought to only ever happen in medical books, not to real people! Ugh.