[Python-Dev] 2.4 news reaches interesting places

Rodrigo Dias Arruda Senra rsenra at acm.org
Tue Dec 14 04:05:09 CET 2004


 [ Guido van Rossum <gvanrossum at gmail.com> ]
 -----------------------------------------------
 | One thing that bugs me: the article says 3 or 4 times that Python is
 | slow, each time with a refutation ("but it's so flexible", "but it's
 | fast enough") but still, they sure seem to harp on the point.

 That reminds me of this joke:

 """Couple of guys find themselves being chased by a lion. The first one
 starts to strecth out preparing to run, the second one finds that ridicule.
 - No way you'll run faster than that lion. While, the other replies:
 - I don't need to run faster than the lion, I just need to run faster than you.
 """

 I love to see Python getting faster and faster. Eventually (if...when PyPy succedes)
 faster-than-C ! But after over 4 years of making-ends-meet with Python, our Brazilian
 customers never complained of our Python solutions being slow. Perhaps because
 they were glad enough with projects delivered 5 to 10 times faster than usual.

 But, but to the joke: I believe Python must strive to run at least as fast as the crowd --
 Java, Perl, Ruby, Lua, Boo, etc

 Maybe we could visit the language shootout sites, translate Python snipets to modern 2.4
 idioms and rerun the test suites:

 http://www.bagley.org/~doug/shootout/ # classic
 http://shootout.alioth.debian.org/    # modern
 
 My 2 cents.

 best regards,
 Senra

-- 
   ,_           
   | )          Rodrigo Senra       <rsenra |at| acm.org>                      
   |(______     -----------------------------------------------
 _(    (|__|]   GPr Sistemas http://www.gpr.com.br                              
_ |    (|___|]  IC - Unicamp http://www.ic.unicamp.br/~921234  
___    (|__|]                       
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