Py 2.5 on Language Shootout

[Ramon Diaz-Uriarte]

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 ...

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.

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