Use native JSON instead of MessagePack is faster

[buinskii]

Test source:

var msgpackLite = require('msgpack-lite');
var msgpackJs = require('msgpack-js');
var Benchmark = require('benchmark');
var msgpack = require('msgpack');
var fs = require('fs');
var _ = require('lodash');

var testData = {
    blablabla: {
        hello: 'World',
        country: 255
    },
    x: 0,
    y: 253745
};

var suite = new Benchmark.Suite;
suite.add('MessagePack encode/decode', function() {
        var encoded = msgpack.pack(testData);
        var decoded = msgpack.unpack(encoded);
    })
    .add('MessagePackLite encode/decode', function() {
        var encoded = msgpackLite.encode(testData);
        var decoded = msgpackLite.decode(encoded);
    })
    .add('MessagePackJS encode/decode', function() {
        var encoded = msgpackJs.encode(testData);
        var decoded = msgpackJs.decode(encoded);
    })
    .add('JSON encode/decode', function() {
        var encoded = JSON.stringify(testData);
        var decoded = JSON.parse(encoded);
    })
    .on('cycle', function(event) {
        console.log(String(event.target));
    })
    .on('complete', function() {
        console.log('Fastest is ' + this.filter('fastest').map('name'));
    })
    .run({ 'async': false });

Test results:

MessagePack encode/decode x 70,190 ops/sec ±2.38% (87 runs sampled)
MessagePackLite encode/decode x 75,994 ops/sec ±2.36% (86 runs sampled)
MessagePackJS encode/decode x 34,879 ops/sec ±2.74% (90 runs sampled)
JSON encode/decode x 371,367 ops/sec ±1.71% (91 runs sampled)
Fastest is JSON encode/decode

[didaxRedux]

The msgpack library is used to compress data, so fast encode/decode is balanced by bandwidth saves.
Could you test average weight of each message during benchmark? It could be interesting...

[buinskii]

Thanks for reply! I modified my test:

var msgpackLite = require('msgpack-lite');
var msgpackJs = require('msgpack-js');
var Benchmark = require('benchmark');
var msgpack = require('msgpack');
var fs = require('fs');
var _ = require('lodash');
var request = require('request');

var testData = {
    blablabla: {
        hello: 'World',
        country: 255
    },
    x: 0,
    y: 253745
};

function test(title, testData, callback) {
    console.log('---', title, '---');
    console.log('| JSON.stringify() result size in bytes:    ' , new Buffer(JSON.stringify(testData)).byteLength);
    console.log('| MessagePack.pack() result size in bytes:  ' , msgpack.pack(testData).byteLength);
    console.log('| msgpackLite.encode() result size in bytes:' , msgpackLite.encode(testData).byteLength);
    console.log('| msgpackJs.encode() result size in bytes:  ' , msgpackJs.encode(testData).byteLength);
    console.log('| ');
    var suite = new Benchmark.Suite;
    suite.add('JSON encode/decode', function() {
            var encoded = JSON.stringify(testData);
            var decoded = JSON.parse(encoded);
        })
        .add('MessagePack encode/decode', function() {
            var encoded = msgpack.pack(testData);
            var decoded = msgpack.unpack(encoded);
        })
        .add('MessagePackLite encode/decode', function() {
            var encoded = msgpackLite.encode(testData);
            var decoded = msgpackLite.decode(encoded);
        })
        .add('MessagePackJS encode/decode', function() {
            var encoded = msgpackJs.encode(testData);
            var decoded = msgpackJs.decode(encoded);
        })
        .on('cycle', function(event) {
            console.log('| ', String(event.target));
        })
        .on('complete', function() {
            console.log('| ');
            console.log('| Fastest is ' + this.filter('fastest').map('name'));
            console.log('---');
            callback();
        })
        .run({ 'async': false });
}

test('small data', testData, function() {

    request.get('http://api.geonames.org/citiesJSON?north=44.1&south=-9.9&east=-22.4&west=55.2&lang=de&username=demo', function(err, response, body) {
        test('large data', JSON.parse(body), function() {});
    });

});

--- small data ---
| JSON.stringify() result size in bytes:     62
| MessagePack.pack() result size in bytes:   44
| msgpackLite.encode() result size in bytes: 44
| msgpackJs.encode() result size in bytes:   44
| 
|  JSON encode/decode x 370,038 ops/sec ±0.60% (90 runs sampled)
|  MessagePack encode/decode x 78,072 ops/sec ±1.56% (87 runs sampled)
|  MessagePackLite encode/decode x 88,616 ops/sec ±1.86% (80 runs sampled)
|  MessagePackJS encode/decode x 40,436 ops/sec ±2.23% (88 runs sampled)
| 
| Fastest is JSON encode/decode
---
--- large data ---
| JSON.stringify() result size in bytes:     2887
| MessagePack.pack() result size in bytes:   2304
| msgpackLite.encode() result size in bytes: 2304
| msgpackJs.encode() result size in bytes:   2306
| 
|  JSON encode/decode x 27,167 ops/sec ±1.51% (90 runs sampled)
|  MessagePack encode/decode x 5,480 ops/sec ±3.56% (82 runs sampled)
|  MessagePackLite encode/decode x 5,565 ops/sec ±1.83% (84 runs sampled)
|  MessagePackJS encode/decode x 1,358 ops/sec ±1.65% (86 runs sampled)
| 
| Fastest is JSON encode/decode
---

What about use msgpack-lite library instead of msgpack-js ? msgpack-lite is 2x faster

[didaxRedux]

Yes... you are right!
I have only a doubt about UInt64 support (see #105) but your analysis is clear.

[darrachequesne]

Hi! I think a PR had already been opened on this matter: #44. Unfortunately, as pointed out by @rauchg:

JSON doesn't support binary data.

Note: maybe we should add a test for this 👼