Python 2 times slower than Perl

[Greg Jorgensen]

"Patrick W." <hard2bsome1 at yahoo.com.au> wrote:

> 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.

Discussion of languages and their applications in teaching or professional
work is fine, I'm all for that. But how does comparing benchmarks of Perl
vs. Python help in that regard? Serious programmers know that such
discussions are often wrong, usually irrelevant, and about as useful as
comparing the speed of a Toyota Camry vs. a Honda Accord. The
less-than-serious programmers apparently find deep meaning in these
comparisons; apparently they believe they must find the "best" language
because they can learn and use only one.

The increasing number of postings comparing Python to language X is I
suppose a good thing: lots of people are kicking the tires and taking Python
for a spin. I think we should encourage that, but not by comparing execution
times of loops. We need to discourage the amateur programmer obsession with
"performance" and "efficiency" as if those attributes are all that matter.

Greg Jorgensen
PDXperts LLC
Portland, Oregon, USA