make tests run much faster

[jw3126]

Before

julia> @time include("test/runtests.jl");
Test Summary:       | Pass  Total     Time
CliffordAlgebras.jl | 2511   2511  2m53.5s
197.829084 seconds (8.98 M allocations: 1.078 TiB, 37.20% gc time, 12.09% compilation time)

After

julia> @time include("test/runtests.jl");
Test Summary:       | Pass  Total  Time
CliffordAlgebras.jl | 2511   2511  0.2s
 26.239201 seconds (7.46 M allocations: 637.263 MiB, 1.01% gc time, 97.76% compilation time)

[jw3126]

The issue was that CliffordAlgebra(9, 6) creates a Tuple of size 2^15. Julia does not like such big tuples.
I think the best solution might be to not store the base indices as a Tuple but as a lazy struct.
This PR at least fixes issues with the big tuple when running the tests.

[ATell-SoundTheory]

Thanks, Jan. I was aware of the issue with the big tuples but don't think there's an easy fix. Like you say, evaluation when needed would be one way. But that would require some major code changes.

I'm not sure if fixing it just for the test runs is a good idea. I'll have to understand what you did there, first.

[jw3126]

I guess most people including me don't actually need these high dimensional algebras. But slow tests affect everybody. The tests only instantiate some big algebras, but do nothing else with them. I made instantiation fast.

[ATell-SoundTheory]

I guess I'll try to replace the tuple with something that quacks and walks like a tuple but is really a lazy evaluated expression. Do you happen to know if someone else already has written a library for that?

[jw3126]

I don't know a library that can help here. If you want we could chat about how to do this or code it together.

[ATell-SoundTheory]

@jw3126 I'd love to do that. Unfortunately I'm knee-deep into a C++ project at the moment and switching to a Julia context would require some effort. But maybe we could meet for a play date some time and discuss the issue when the kids are busy?

[jw3126]

@jw3126 I'd love to do that. Unfortunately I'm knee-deep into a C++ project at the moment and switching to a Julia context would require some effort. But maybe we could meet for a play date some time and discuss the issue when the kids are busy?

Yeah sounds good!