Is this a true statement: Part II

[Jarno J Virtanen]

Fri, 29 Jun 2001 14:48:23 -0400 MDK wrote:

> "Python can do everything C++ can do but just slower."
[snip]
> 1. Excluding writing device drivers the answer is a clear yes.

[i'm not going into the device driver issue here]

"yes" is a good answer to that statement if you don't have
to actually do anything. ;-)

In the so called real world, that is an oversimplification.

It should be something like:

"Implementation of some specification (which can and will be
changed later) written in C++ is faster than written in Python,
IF you can find the near optimal solution and you are able to
design it so that you can isolate the time critical parts (which
you can optimize) given the usual constraints such as deadlines
(limited time), limited resources, different abilities of 
programmers and so on."

Quoting The Mythical Man-Month by Frederick Brooks:

"All programmers are optimistic." 

I rest my case.


(PS. Okay, that quote was about schedules, but I think it can be
generalized to optimization. ;-)