why is python slow?

[Skip Montanaro]

    Donn> ... I wonder if all of Python's performance problems are really so
    Donn> deep.  A few weeks ago someone posted some performance
    Donn> measurements and, among other things, noted that version 2.2 took
    Donn> twice as long just to start up.  Did that appalling statistic
    Donn> attract any investigation into the cause, ...

I believe the bulk of the effort in the 2.x series up to this point has
focused on functionality ahead of performance.  I'm sure there are things
that can be done.  Why not file a bug report, investigate and solve the
problem, then grab some of that fame and fortune I alluded in my post
seeking new developers yesterday?  (I'm not picking on Donn, he just happens
to be the one who raised this issue and gave me the nice segue.)

The group of people who actively beat on the code is still fairly small.  I
count 38 people currently with checkin privileges.  Of those, I count six
whose SF usernames I don't even recognize.  There are probably another five
to ten who don't regularly contribute to either checkins or python-dev
discussions.  That means the effective pool of developers is really quite
small.  That, in turn, means we need more eyeballs.  You don't need checkin
privileges to tackle an open bug or investigate a problem and report its
cause (a proposed solution would be helpful, but it might go a long ways
towards fixing a problem if you can narrow down the cause a bit).

    Donn> I believe I recall something similar in 2.0, due to a mistake in
    Donn> site.py that was discovered during the beta releases.  Not a hard
    Donn> problem, just one that wouldn't be noticed until someone wondered
    Donn> why performance went downhill so fast.  We can wave our hands and
    Donn> say performance is a tough problem, but it would be more
    Donn> convincing if it looked like it was getting the most minimal
    Donn> attention.

Agreed.  When can we expect that patch? ;-)

-- 
Skip Montanaro (skip at pobox.com - http://www.mojam.com/)