Python GUI interpreter slower than DOS-version?

[ssecorp]

Sometimes when running very intensive computations the Python-
interpreter kind of overheats and stops responding.

I have gotten the impression that the dos-version is less likely to
crash. Can that be true and if so, why?

Is there anyway to get around this? Pretty annoying that it stops
responding, would be nice to be able to control-c out of it like in
DOS when you want to terminate a program.