data.table join operation 2x slower

[tdhock]

@DorisAmoakohene please create an atime test case and PR for Rdatatable/data.table#3928 (comment)

[DorisAmoakohene]

@tdhock

atime.list.3928 <- atime::atime_versions(
  pkg.path=tdir,
  pkg.edit.fun=function(old.Package, new.Package, sha, new.pkg.path){
    pkg_find_replace <- function(glob, FIND, REPLACE){
      atime::glob_find_replace(file.path(new.pkg.path, glob), FIND, REPLACE)
    }
    Package_regex <- gsub(".", "_?", old.Package, fixed=TRUE)
    Package_ <- gsub(".", "_", old.Package, fixed=TRUE)
    new.Package_ <- paste0(Package_, "_", sha)
    pkg_find_replace(
      "DESCRIPTION", 
      paste0("Package:\\s+", old.Package),
      paste("Package:", new.Package))
    pkg_find_replace(
      file.path("src","Makevars.*in"),
      Package_regex,
      new.Package_)
    pkg_find_replace(
      file.path("R", "onLoad.R"),
      Package_regex,
      new.Package_)
    pkg_find_replace(
      file.path("R", "onLoad.R"),
      sprintf('packageVersion\\("%s"\\)', old.Package),
      sprintf('packageVersion\\("%s"\\)', new.Package))
    pkg_find_replace(
      file.path("src", "init.c"),
      paste0("R_init_", Package_regex),
      paste0("R_init_", gsub("[.]", "_", new.Package_)))
    pkg_find_replace(
      "NAMESPACE",
      sprintf('useDynLib\\("?%s"?', Package_regex),
      paste0('useDynLib(', new.Package_))
  },
  N=10^seq(1,3),
  setup={ 
    setDTthreads(1)  
    aa <- data.table(a = seq(1, 100), b = rep(0, 100))
    bb <- data.table(a = seq(1, 100), b = rep(1, 100))
  },

  expr=data.table:::`[.data.table`(aa, bb, b := i.b, on = .(a)),
  #"data.table_1.10.4-"="8b201fd28f5d4afcc4be026a5d9eb4bb6dd62955", #"https://github.com/Rdatatable/data.table/commit/8b201fd28f5d4afcc4be026a5d9eb4bb6dd62955
  "data.table_1.12.2"="86034855f9b305e948d83014af89352fc42e27f2"  #https://github.com/Rdatatable/data.table/commit/86034855f9b305e948d83014af89352fc42e27f2
) 

Error in atime_versions_install(Package, normalizePath(pkg.path), new.Package.vec,  : 
  "C:/PROGRA~1/R/R-44~1.1/bin/R" CMD INSTALL -l "C:/Users/amoak/AppData/Local/R/win-library/4.4" C:\Users\amoak\AppData\Local\Temp\RtmpigoXAp\file832c5ae9668c/file832cef66fdf.86034855f9b305e948d83014af89352fc42e27f2 returned error status code 1

the issues says data.table_1.10.4-3 + R version 3.4.0 (2017-04-21)
vs
data.table_1.12.2 + R version 3.6.1 (2019-07-05)

and have noticed that join operation almost 2 times slower in new version data.table (R?)
I think mostly depends on version of data.table,

I am not able to install the data.table versions for the issues above. This issue has come up before last semester
just to give heads up, I will try and install these version of R and run it on