python compiled to native in less than a year?

[Peter Hansen]

Neil Schemenauer wrote:
> 
> It used to bother me that Python is so slow.  I don't care much
> anymore.  I don't know if its the fact that I'm getting older and
> more mature or if its that machines are getting so fast now that
> it doesn't really matter.  I guess knowing that I can quite
> easily write a C extension module helps too.

Perhaps a combination?  I came to Python long enough into its 
life that I can't say it ever bothered me it was slow.  I'd already
become 'old enough' to stop worrying, had machines fast enough
that I hardly noticed a change from C, and had become so 
intensely frustrated with maintenance costs of software 
development that Python's vast advantages in that respect 
completely masked any issues of performance.