Py 2.5 on Language Shootout

[Fuzzyman]

Carl Friedrich Bolz 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.

If you rephrase your argument to read 'it is never useful to discuss
the comparative speed of langauges' then hopefully the error should be
obvious. But then to discuss the speed of languages rather than
implementations would be a generalisations, and generalisations are
always wrong... ;-)

Fuzzyman
http://www.voidspace.org.uk/python/articles.shtml

> 
> Cheers,
> 
> Carl Friedrich Bolz