Built-in datatypes speed

[Maël Benjamin Mettler]

Hello Python-List

I hope somebody can help me with this. I spent some time googling for an
answer, but due to the nature of the problem lots of unrelevant stuff
shows up.

Anyway, I reimplemented parts of TigerSearch (
http://www.ims.uni-stuttgart.de/projekte/TIGER/TIGERSearch/ ) in Python.
I am currently writing the paper that goes along with this
reimplementation. Part of the paper deals with the
differences/similarities in the original Java implementation and my
reimplementation. In order to superficially evaluate differences in
speed, I used this paper (
http://www.ubka.uni-karlsruhe.de/cgi-bin/psview?document=ira/2000/5&format=1
) as a reference. Now, this is not about speed differences between Java
and Python, mind you, but about the speed built-in datatypes
(dictionaries, lists etc.) run at. As far as I understood it from the
articles and books I read, any method call from these objects run nearly
at C-speed (I use this due to lack of a better term), since these parts
are implemented in C. Now the question is:

a) Is this true?
b) Is there a correct term for C-speed and what is it?

I would greatly appreciate an answer to that, since this has some impact
on the argumentation in the paper.

Thanks,

Maël

PS: For people interested in this reimplementation project: my code will
be published here (
http://www.ling.su.se/dali/downloads/treealigner/index.htm ) as soon as
it is integrated with the GUI and properly tested. The whole thing is
GPLed...