Variables slowing the script?

[Eigensheep]

Ok, I am genuinely confused by this. I'm using GDI Plus to draw images to the screen and then "moving" the images by redrawing them in GDI+.

But the problem is that the script slows depending on how I define my initial variables and I don't see why -

Like this, it's a useable script, reasonably fast and responsive ("local" here is the global scope, so I don't think memory is the problem)

Local Const $Width = 700
Local Const $Height = 650
Local Const $fog = 8
Local Const $n_blocks = 30
Local Const $tilt = $Pi/5
Local Const $bgcolor = "F0506070"
Local $dot_distance = 50

But like this and the whole script becomes around 3 seconds slower for every action

Switch $split[1]
  Case "fog"
   Global Const $fog = 8
  Case "n_blocks"
   Global Const $n_blocks = 30
  Case "bgcolor"
   Global Const $bgcolor = "F0506070"
  Case "sphere_image"
   Global $sphere_image = @ScriptDir & "\images\sphere.gif"
  Case "sphereR0"
   Global $sphereR0 = 255
  Case "sphereG0"
   Global $sphereG0 = 255
  Case "sphereB0"
   Global $sphereB0 = 90
EndSwitch

And, of course, I wanted to use the latter. Any ideas what I can do?

[guinness]

Why not declare the variables at the top of the script and then change their values? Try and let me know. I also tend not to use Const unless I have to. Plus is this in a Function, because it would be best to use Local.

Global $fog, $n_blocks, $bgcolor, $sphere_image, $sphereR0, $sphereG0, $sphereB0

Switch $split[1]
  Case "fog"
   $fog = 8
  Case "n_blocks"
   $n_blocks = 30
  Case "bgcolor"
   $bgcolor = "F0506070"
  Case "sphere_image"
   $sphere_image = @ScriptDir & "\images\sphere.gif"
  Case "sphereR0"
   $sphereR0 = 255
  Case "sphereG0"
   $sphereG0 = 255
  Case "sphereB0"
   $sphereB0 = 90
EndSwitch

[Info]

BTW, AFAIK variables with long names slow down the script.

[Eigensheep]

That doesn't seem to have made a difference. The variable $split[1] comes from a FileReadLine() and the file is closed after the Switch loop, would this make a difference? And Info, I'll bear that in mind - how long is long?

Thanks for the help guys.

[Info]

[Eigensheep]

I think I've found a solution. First I shortened some of my longer variables (this is surprising news!) and that made a small difference, BUT then I realised that because I was taking some variables from an external file, they were all being read as string type, so in expressions such as "If $var Then" later on, even if $var was "False" then the code was executed. This made a huge difference - it cut down the average time for one of my functions from 250ms to 79ms (according to timerdiff)...

Now I know to make sure my variables are of the right type in future. Thanks for the tips though, I'll bear all of it in mind for future scripts.

[jvanegmond]

You shouldn't shorten variable names because it is faster. Readability is a lot more important than optimization. Beside that, we can write a preprocessor which will shorten all variable names for you (like obfuscator does) so that your script executes faster.

[KaFu]

You shouldn't shorten variable names because it is faster. Readability is a lot more important than optimization. Beside that, we can write a preprocessor which will shorten all variable names for you (like obfuscator does) so that your script executes faster.

Fully aknowledged, you should better use