[rules-users] Executing Rules in Sequential Mode

[Jin, Ming]

My rules engine test showed virtually no difference between Rete and
Sequential execution modes: 3.44s for Rete while 3.50s for Sequential.
Those are the average timing from several runs, each with 1,000 rule
execution calls.  Since I do not have a controlled environment, the
difference seems insignificant.  (The other rules engine I tested showed
huge improvement for the same rule set comparing Sequential with Rete).


The following code segments show how RuleBaseConfiguration is set and
the rule execution.  Traced into the code a little bit, and did see the
sequential flag set and the order() method was called.

Please advise if this is the proper way to set sequential.  Otherwise, I
would just conclude that sequential mode has no effect for this
particular rule set under Drools.  

I would like to add that even without sequential, Drools performance was
fantastic.

Thanks,
-Ming

  /**
   * Creates a RuleBase instance with the given package object and the
sequential execution flag.
   * @param pkg
   * @param sequential true for sequential mode, false defaults to Rete
   * @return the created RuleBase with the given package and execution
mode. 
   * @throws Exception
   */
  private static RuleBase createRuleBase(Package pkg, boolean
sequential) throws Exception {
    RuleBaseConfiguration conf  = new RuleBaseConfiguration();
    conf.setSequential(sequential);
    RuleBase  rb  = RuleBaseFactory.newRuleBase(conf);

    rb.addPackage(pkg);
    return rb;
  }

      // code segments for rule execution
      StatelessSession  session = rulebase.newStatelessSession();
      StatelessSessionResult  result  =
session.executeWithResults(list);