[Python-ideas] Why CPython is still behind in performance for some widely used patterns ?

[Barry Scott]

> On 30 Jan 2018, at 05:45, Nick Coghlan <ncoghlan at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> I'll also note that one of the things we (and others) *have* been
> putting quite a bit of time into is the question of "Why do people
> avoid using extension modules for code acceleration?".

I think that is simple. Those that try give up because its a difficult API to
call correctly.

At PYCON UK on speaker explain how she, PhD level researcher,
had failed to get the a C extension working.

I was contacted to improve PyCXX by a contractor for the US Army that stated that he
was called in to help the internal developers get a big library wrapped for use from python.

After 6 months they where no where near working code. He did what was
needed with PyCXX in 3 weeks + the time getting me to make some nice additions to
help him.

It seems that if people find a C++ library that will do the heavy lifting they
end up with extensions. But those that attempt the C API as is seem to fail
and give up. It also seems that people do not go looking for the helper libraries.

Next year at PYCON I hope to give a talk on PyCXX and encourage people to
write extensions.

Barry
PyCXX maintainer.



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