I have been trying to find out how much faster Mathematica is in CLI than in GUI, and with lack of success in finding any information about it, I decided to crowdsource my quest for this piece of hopefully useful nerdy knowledge.
I know that there exist methods for timing the evaluation of the notebook, but here arise my main two problems with timing:
- I started using Mathematica some six months ago, and I realise that I do not yet possess the knowledge and skills to truly test the speed differences in heavier processing. Henceforth, I could only time some relatively lighter processing, which would likely not produce any meaningful difference between the CLI and GUI (this would reflect my current usage, yes, but I would not learn nothing new for optimising processing for the future).
- Secondly, I am interested in finding out if the two interfaces use hardware differently, which trial-and-error type timing would not tell me. (E.g. does the CLI use the processing computer's processor (and its cores) more efficiently than the GUI, or do they use the same interface with comparable results?)
While the question admittedly is quite case-specific, I have a few more general questions about the two interfaces' computing speed differences. I know the CLI can be commanded to evaluate several notebooks at once, but thinking about single-notebook cases:
- Is the CLI faster than the GUI in simpler cases (let's say; evaluation times of <5 seconds), or are the two generally speaking as fast?
- Is the CLI faster than the GUI in more complex cases (let's say; evaluation times of ≥5 seconds), or are the two generally speaking as fast?
- Does the CLI use hardware more efficiently than the GUI? Are there differences between the two when it comes to utilising multi-core processors?
- Finally: In 2015, is there any and what are the reasons to use the CLI over the GUI (unless I want to play around with multiple notebooks at once)?
While it seems like a simple thing to search for, I could find any general results for the differences between the two, as the choice between using CLI or GUI seemed to come to people's preferences and the operating system in use.