BartC <b...@freeuk.com> writes: > But, someone had to write that Image.PNG.encode() function at some > time. What language did they use? If it wasn't Python, then why not?
Because some operations actually need to be very fast, even at the expense of difficult-to-maintain code in a difficult-to-use language. > Why is it OK to let some poor sod slave away in C++ or whatever (a > ghastly language), while others then reap the benefits writing in an > easy 'soft' language? Because that's the whole point of writing a small re-usable library and maintaining it: countless gobs of badly-written imitations thereby never need to be written. > I've been interested for a while in broadening the scope of scripting > languages so that less work has to be done in 'hard' ones. Yes, that's pretty much the answer to the question you asked above. > But the attitude in this group has been very different; Python /is/ > slow, but so what? Just a general shrug. I'm sorry you drew that inference. Comprehensive answers – not a “general shrug” – have in fact been given to you. The answer boils down to the fact that there are trade-offs to be made. One that is easy to express is that Python trades preserving valuable programmer time, at the expense of some non-critical operations being slightly slower. And no, of course it's not “Python is slow”. Such a broad statement is erxactly what gets mocking scorn in response: you need to be *much* more specific about what is slow, under what conditions. Python is plenty fast enough at most of the things it is used for. > So long as /someone else/ uses the hard language to created the needed > libraries, the speed of pure Python is irrelevant. New version of > Python is now half the speed? Another shrug! Citation needed. I don't know of any released version of Python that was ever “twice as slow” – no qualifiers – than the previous release. Make such sweeping, hand-waving statements that are trivially demonstrated false, and yes your statements will be dismissed. With sneers by some, and with a shrug by most. -- \ “It's easy to play any musical instrument: all you have to do | `\ is touch the right key at the right time and the instrument | _o__) will play itself.” —Johann Sebastian Bach | Ben Finney -- https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
