Why is Python slow? (was Re: One Python 2.1 idea)

[Lieven Marchand]

aahz at panix.com (Aahz Maruch) writes:

> In article <m38zp6nk8k.fsf at localhost.localdomain>,
> Lieven Marchand  <mal at bewoner.dma.be> wrote:
> >
> >I think Common Lisp shows that getting very good speed in Python is
> >quite feasable. The original CMUCL implementers weren't such a large
> >group. Their highly optimising compiler (which incidentally is also
> >called Python) has on occasion beaten FORTRAN at numerics. I don't
> >know why some people in the Python community think compiling Python is
> >such a problem. Practically all the problems have been tackled and
> >solved 20 years ago in the Lisp community.
> 
> One of the reasons that gets brought up less often than it should is
> that Guido is somewhat fanatical about also keeping the CPython
> implementation clean and simple.  I'm pretty sure that -- Ghu forbid it
> become necessary -- I could manage to maintain CPython if I had to.
> 
> This leaves less room for optimization than many people think.

Certainly. Also the fact that writing/maintaining a compiler for all
the platforms CPython runs on would be a large effort. CMUCL is
written in itself and is notoriously hard to bootstrap or retarget to
a new OS, let alone a new CPU.

-- 
Lieven Marchand <mal at bewoner.dma.be>
Lambda calculus - Call us a mad club