Py 2.5 on Language Shootout

[Isaac Gouy]

Ramon Diaz-Uriarte wrote:
> On 1/20/07, Carl Friedrich Bolz <cfbolz at gmx.de> wrote:
> > pgarrone at acay.com.au wrote:
> >  >>> Looking over the benchmarks, one gains the impression that Python is a
> >  >>> slow language.
> >  >> What does that even mean - a slow language?
> >  >>
> >  >
> >  > The alioth benchmarks provide a set of numbers by which
> >  > languages may be compared.
> >
> > Wrong. The benchmarks provide a set of numbers by which
> > _implementations_ of languages can be compared. After all, it is
> > possible that someone implements a magic-pixie-dust-interpreter that
> > executes Python programs several orders of magnitude fastes than
> > CPython. Or you could say that C is slow because if you use CINT, a C
> > interpreter ( http://root.cern.ch/root/Cint.html ) to execute it, it is
> > slow.
>
>
> Yeah, but this is hair-splitting. Except for Jython, IronPython, and
> Stackless, I think when we say "Python is slow/fast" we think CPython
> (otherwise, we qualify the implementation). For that matter it is
> often said "the GIL ..."; oh, but wait, Stackless ...

When we say "Python is slow/fast" what does "slow/fast" mean?


>
> With other languages (e.g., Common Lisp) the separation between the
> language and the implementation is key because, to begin with, there
> is something external from, and independent of, any particular
> implementation. That is not the case with Python.
>
> And the example of CINT is hair-splitting to the nth power.To begin
> with, I do not think CINT implements the full standard C. But even if
> it were, when people think of C they rarely think of CINT.

And that's why the existence of CINT is such a stark reminder of the
separation between the language and the implementation. When people
think of C what do they think of - gcc? tiny-c? intel c? microsoft c?
some mythical C implementation?


>
> I think readers understood the previous poster.
>
> Best,
>
> R.
> >
> > Cheers,
> >
> > Carl Friedrich Bolz
> >
> > --
> > http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
> >
>
>
> --
> Ramon Diaz-Uriarte
> Statistical Computing Team
> Structural Biology and Biocomputing Programme
> Spanish National Cancer Centre (CNIO)
> http://ligarto.org/rdiaz