why python is slower than java?

[Maurice LING]

> at work, we use java and python.  we have projects using swing and 
> others using wxpython.  we have applications that do intensive io and 
> others that do intensive cpu. we have not found that python is slower 
> than java.   in fact, when it comes to gui's, our swing apps take 
> "forever" to startup and when when garbage collector starts, the whole 
> app just freezes for about 15 seconds.  our wxpython apps, start right 
> up and "feel" faster and snappier.  can you show an example of where 
> python's "slow" speed as compared to java's "fast" speed has negatively 
> impacted your application or has been noticable in any way?  i know this 
> is a trolling question you have posted, but i'm actually very interested 
> knowing why you have said this.
> 
> thanks,
> 
> bryan

Thanks, lets just say that I have no interest in trolling.

1st of all, I thought it is somehow common knowledge that python is 
slower than java in many cases. Though I may be wrong... When I do a 
Google search, this came up...

http://twistedmatrix.com/users/glyph/rant/python-vs-java.html

although http://page.mi.fu-berlin.de/~prechelt/Biblio/jccpprtTR.pdf 
showsjust the opposite.

What I need to work on now is something that requires speed (and dealing 
with files), without user's intervention. So the part about users' delay 
time is not in the equation. My choices boils down to Python or Java.

Cheers
maurice