[Tutor] Python vs. C

[Gerrit Holl]

Michael Janssen wrote:
> Another advantage of C is, that it gives you fine grained control about
> memory consumption and datastructures: C hasn't got such strong buildin
> "list" or "dict" but lets you define anything as strong and both best
> suited for your needs. The flipside is, that you should implement it
> good to gain increased performance. I can imaging that you would have a
> very hard time competing with python list's sort method. list.sort is
> (like many performance relevant parts) coded in C and for all I have
> heard it's some of the best C code you can think of.

But there are a lot of C libraries. Aren't there so many C libraries
that one can essentially program higher-level by using a lot of
libraries? Or am I overlooking something?

Me, I know only Python as well, and the only language on my
'want-to-learn'-list is Ruby, so that's not a giant leap at all
(university will teach me Java next year).

> The good thing is, that python lets you embed C for only the
> perfomance related parts.

The bad thing is, that learning C only to be able te embed C in a Python
program seems a bit odd. There isn't a C-for-Python-programmers
tutorial, or is there?

> [root at linus root]# time hello
> Hello, world!
> 
> real    0m0.004s
> user    0m0.000s
> sys     0m0.000s

$ time echo hello
hello

real    0m0.000s
user    0m0.000s
sys     0m0.000s
$ timeit.py 'print "hello"'
(skip output)
1000 loops, best of 3: 196 usec per loop

heh heh :)

yours,
Gerrit.

-- 
135. If a man be taken prisoner in war and there be no sustenance in
his house and his wife go to another house and bear children; and if later
her husband return and come to his home: then this wife shall return to
her husband, but the children follow their father.
          -- 1780 BC, Hammurabi, Code of Law
-- 
PrePEP: Builtin path type
    http://people.nl.linux.org/~gerrit/creaties/path/pep-xxxx.html
Asperger's Syndrome - a personal approach:
	http://people.nl.linux.org/~gerrit/english/