Algorithm performance comparison question

[kender_a]

I’m posting this question after a conversation with one of my friends.

There are two algorithms that accomplish the same goal – search through XML file. These algorithms are developed by two different academic research groups. A friend of mine works in one of them, and she wants to compare the performance of the algorithms. The problem is that they are implemented in different languages: C++ and Java. Source codes for both are available. The question is – is there an experimental method for comparing the performance of these algorithms without having both of them implemented in the same language? What assumptions are safe to make?

Thanks,
- Nick

[Zachm]

If you are unsure as how to analyze the asymptotic run-time complexity of any of these algorithms, maybe testing them against bechmark XML data (and keeping track of time of course) will be helpful ?

An XML benchmark data generator can be found at:
http://monetdb.cwi.nl/xml/downloads.html

Regards,
Zachm