  We compare the phase space slicing and dipole subtraction methods in the
computation of the inclusive and differential next-to-leading order cross
sections for heavy quark production in the simple process gamma^* -> Q Qbar.
For the phase space slicing method we study the effects of improvement terms
that remove restrictions on the slicing parameter s_min. For the dipole method
our comparison is a first check on some of its counterterms involving massive
quarks, derived recently. In our comparison we address issues such as numerical
accuracy and efficiency.
