why is python slow?

[Fernando Pereira]

On 3/8/02 12:19 PM, in article kuelivht8g.fsf at lasipalatsi.fi, "Erno Kuusela"
<erno-news at erno.iki.fi> wrote:

> In article <B8AE231F.4AF0%pereira at cis.upenn.edu>, Fernando Pereira
> <pereira at cis.upenn.edu> writes:
> 
> | Another reason is that a JIT compiler may not help Python as much as Java,
> | because [...]
> 
> i think the last time there was an in-depth thread about this, many
> people speculated that a jit compiler could infact help python a lot.
> (perhaps a jit compiler can help java even more.)
> smalltalk and self implementation techniques were discussed.

The irreducible fact is that Python needs extensive runtime type checks,
Java doesn't. One could argue that agressive inlining of built-in operations
and type checks followed by removal of redundant machine instructions might
have the effect of removing most type checks, but that needs to be shown.

-- F