SPL and system - slow?

A cow-orker has noted that execution of a 'system' command from within an SPL takes about a second to execute. He tested this by doing a 'date' command - he can run 44 of those in one second from the command line (fast fingers). Whereas it takes the full second from with the SPL. Commentary? cheers j. _____________________________________________________________________________ Jack Parker - Hewlett Packard, DMD/IS Boise, Idaho, USA jparker@hpbs3645.boi.hp.com _____________________________________________________________________________ "I'm with the IRS, I'm here to help you" _____________________________________________________________________________ Any opinions expressed herein are my own and not those of my employers. _____________________________________________________________________________