WHY is python slow?

David LeBlanc whisper at oz.nospamnet
Tue Jun 12 13:22:01 EDT 2001


In article <mailman.991956855.5206.python-list at python.org>, 
tim.one at home.com says...
<snip>
> C++ adds nothing to C that can't be done just as well with
> preprocessor macros, 
<snip>
> there's-no-accounting-for-mass-delusion-ly y'rs  - tim

Didn't you ever use AT&T CFront<tm>? That was "C with classes" 
implemented as a set of macros - it was god-aweful. Also, the first 
commercially available C++ implementation from Microsoft likewise had a 
part of the language still in macros - it was even more god-aweful 
(consider the source!) and was widely ignored in favor of Borland and 
Zortech (later Symantec) "native" C++ products.

Aside from massive code bloat and agonizingly slow compiles, there are 
just some things in C++ that cannot be expressed using the C 
preprocesser.

Dave LeBlanc



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