Ramon Diaz-Uriarte wrote: > On 1/20/07, Carl Friedrich Bolz <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > [EMAIL PROTECTED] 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 -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
