Article on the future of Python

[Steven D'Aprano]

On Wed, 26 Sep 2012 07:19:56 -0700, wxjmfauth wrote:

> No, I'm comparing Py33 with Py32 narrow build [*]. And I am not a Python
> newbie. Others in a previous discussion have pointed "bad" numbers and
> even TR wrote something like "I'm baffled (?) by these numbers".

jmf, some time ago I said to you that if you want your claims to be taken 
seriously, you should come up with a test suite that exercises the FULL 
range of string operations and still demonstrates a significant slowdown.

Have you do this? I would be interested to run your test suite.

We know that if the only thing you do is repeatedly create strings, then 
throw them away, then create more strings, then throw them away, Python 
3.3 will be a little slower than Python 3.2. You say "ten times" slower, 
but nobody else has been able to confirm this. Others are reporting that, 
at worst, string handling is twice as slow and sometimes twice as fast, 
depending on what operations you do, and what operating system you have.

(Since creating strings depends on allocating, and moving, blocks of 
memory, the speed of creating strings is highly dependent on the 
operating system's memory management.)

If all you want to do is complain and whinge and feel morally superior 
that you are the only one that cares that "Python is slower" (allegedly), 
please take it to your blog because we don't care.

But if you genuinely want to determine whether or not this slowdown is 
meaningful in practice, and if so help optimise it so that it is faster, 
then stop with the propaganda about Python destroying Unicode and start 
writing a test suite.



-- 
Steven