python compiled to native in less than a year?

[Steve Holden]

"Peter Hansen" <peter at engcorp.com> wrote in message
news:3A63E6FF.22EE019C at engcorp.com...
> Neil Schemenauer wrote:
> >
> > It used to bother me that Python is so slow.  I don't care much
> > anymore.  I don't know if its the fact that I'm getting older and
> > more mature or if its that machines are getting so fast now that
> > it doesn't really matter.  I guess knowing that I can quite
> > easily write a C extension module helps too.
>
> Perhaps a combination?  I came to Python long enough into its
> life that I can't say it ever bothered me it was slow.  I'd already
> become 'old enough' to stop worrying, had machines fast enough
> that I hardly noticed a change from C, and had become so
> intensely frustrated with maintenance costs of software
> development that Python's vast advantages in that respect
> completely masked any issues of performance.
>

As the cost of  hardware has plummeted, the significant cost element in
developing software has become the "wetware": the analysis of the problem,
its expression in a suitable language, and the maintenance of the code as
requirements change and bugs are found. It no longer makes sense to have
programmers working overtime to submit compilations during the wee small
hours, since each can make use of a network of powerful computers whenever
it is convenient to them.

Python's simplicity is its overriding virtue because it is (relatively) easy
to express most algorithms in Python, and the code is simple enough that
maintenance is rarely a headache.

While it's nice to be know one can "descend" into C to improve efficiency,
in practice I have not yet bothered to climb that particular learning curve
because speed isn't important enough on the problems I work on to justify
the increased cost of programming and maintenance. It's also a joy to have
so much well-written library code (both from the standard distribution and
third parties) to draw on -- remindsme of Isaac Newton's famous remark: "If
I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants."

While I may seem shortsighted compared with the bots who contribute to this
newsgroup, having found Python as a programming tool it will take the
development of something quite remarkable to make me feel like giving it up.

Hardware gets faster as I get slower, and nowadays my attitude is that
computers have cycles to spare, whereas my time increases in value with each
passing day.

wondering-why-people-cry-on-my-shoulders-not-stand-on-them-ly y'rs -  steve