Could Python supplant Java?

[Paul Rubin]

"James J. Besemer" <jb at cascade-sys.com> writes:
> If it is true that Python is 10X better than C++ then it seems there
> should be a way to illustrate it on this small but non-trivial
> example.  When writing these programs I was more interested in
> performance and made the programs as similar as possible.  I haven't
> thought about it but perhaps there's some way to shrink my Python
> solution another 8X or so to get down to the 10X range.
> 
> If you think a larger program would serve better to illustrate, I'm
> sure I can come up with one.

There was a famous paper by Howard Trickey in Sigplan Notices in 1988
where he compared a C++ and Lisp implementation of the same fairly
large problem.  I just googled around for it but it doesn't seem to be
online.  I think it would be relevant to this discussion.  I might try
to find a copy at the library or something.