Performance considerations (was: Using Python for Web development)

[Cameron Laird]

In article <avve8ts7n40vc3bnl42osvs69dgi71ma37 at 4ax.com>,
Tim Roberts  <timr at probo.com> wrote:
>billy_bill_1 at my-deja.com wrote:
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>>One more thing I just thought of, how fast is python
>>compared to php, asp perl etc?  PHP is damn fast for a scripting
>>language, any benchmarks around?
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>Does it really matter?  CGI script execution time is negligible compared to
>network overhead time.  The cost savings in development is significant
>enough that I'll pay a performance penalty that cannot be measured, anyway.
>
>If you program Python like you program Perl, you will find Python to be
>slower.  For example, Perl programs often become a morass of regular
>expression tweaks; Python doesn't do as well for that.  But once you figure
>out the "Python" way to do things, the difference becomes slight.
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This answer deserves reiteration.

Yes, there are benchmarks around, and occasionally I even
publish a few myself.  They are of EXTREMELY limited value,
though, value utterly swamped by the moral hazard that they
might fall into the hands of uneducated managers.  In 2001,
we're in the happy situation that Perl, PHP, Python, ...
execution times are all essentially equivalent, at least in
comparison with the challenges that fill most developers'
days.

Python's faster than PHP for many things, slower for others.
While it's right to ask about such differences, which have
the potential to matter, the answer for performance is, you
won't be able to tell 'em apart.
-- 

Cameron Laird <claird at NeoSoft.com>
Business:  http://www.Phaseit.net
Personal:  http://starbase.neosoft.com/~claird/home.html