Python 2 times slower than Perl

[Patrick W.]

"Greg Jorgensen" <gregj at pdxperts.com> writes:

> "Alex Martelli" <aleaxit at yahoo.com> wrote in message
> news:9j4af20d2o at enews4.newsguy.com...
> 
> > Perl and Python ruled the roost in Prechelt's tests (from the POV
> > of development speed), indistinguishable from each other.  C and C++
> > made the fastest executables on average.  Java was bad on both
> > scores -- very slow programs taking a long time to develop.  Other
> > scripting languages (Tcl, Rexx) gave intermediate development times
> > but extremely slow results.  Somebody else claims to have rerun the
> > same experiment with Common Lisp, getting runtimes competitive with
> > C and C++ and development speed competitive with Perl and Python.
> >
> > We could definitely do with more such tests...!!!

There are links to Erann Gat's follow-up study at:

http://www.norvig.com/java-lisp.html

> With all respect, why? [...]

To get a better understanding of which languages it benefits us to
learn and teach. Also to get a better understanding of which languages
are best used in the "real world", given a set of tradeoffs between
development time and program performance.

Sounds reasonable enough to me.