Python IS slow ! [was] Re: Python too slow for real world

[Markus Kohler]

>>>>> "Marko" == Marko Schulz <4mschulz at informatik.uni-hamburg.de> writes:

    Marko> Markus Kohler <markus_kohler at hp.com> wrote:
    >>  Python-1.5.2c1 ....  0.52 seconds
    >> 
    >> Squeak ....  0.13 seconds.

    Marko> I wouldn't put too much meaning in this number. You can't
    Marko> say how big the startup costs are for a python
    Marko> vs. squeak. 

I'm not really interested in the startup costs. One can make them near
zero for squeak, by compiling the image into an executable.  These are
the times without startup costs.

    Marko> You mentioned Garbage Collection. There are other factors,
    Marko> that might make other (longer running?)  examples very
    Marko> different.

I ran this example 100 times. I think that's long enough. 

    Marko> Still it would be nice, if python were faster.

Agreed. And profiling with quantify (thanks for the nice support)
seems to suggest that most time in python is spend in the byte code for function 
call. I took only a  quick look at the code, but it seems to me that
the code for calling a function is pretty comples. 

Markus
-- 
Markus Kohler  mailto:markus_kohler at hp.com