Python's Performance

[Paul Boddie]

Laszlo Zsolt Nagy wrote:
> There are benchmarks testing the *real performance* of Python.
>
> For example: http://www.osnews.com/story.php?news_id=5602

Just the observation that there are 166 comments to that article would
suggest that the methodology employed was somewhat debatable. (I don't
need to read them all - it is OSNews, after all.)

As for the "real performance" of Python, what do we learn from these
benchmarks which "...didn't test string manipulation, graphics, object
creation and management (for object oriented languages), complex data
structures, network access, database access, or any of the countless
other things that go on in any non-trivial program"? That Python
doesn't perform well executing loops involving mathematical operations?
Or something about "research and development" in the big consulting
houses?

Paul