python, a scripting language?

Cameron Laird claird at starbase.neosoft.com
Mon May 13 12:43:42 EDT 2002


In article <mailman.1021272682.6960.python-list at python.org>,
Terry Hancock  <hancock at anansispaceworks.com> wrote:
			.
		[many true and
		important things]
			.
			.
>You *can* script with C,C++ or another compiled language, but
>it's a major pain.  So they are poor scripting languages. I
>have no idea where Java fits in this spectrum, though I
>suspect it is also a poor scripting language.  I consider
			.
			.
			.
>Python is much faster than shell scripts, though a wee-bit slower
>than native compiled languages like C (quite often though, the
>difference is actually negligible, from what I've heard. I've
>rarely had the need or opportunity to compare them).  It also
			.
			.
			.
I said this last about the speed of Python and C
too often, and I must do penance:  Python can be
MUCH slower than C, easily two orders of magni-
tude on common benchmarks.  For many or most
practical implementations of useful programs,
Python is, I agree, barely slower than C, and often
faster; it can be hard to see this, though, from a
naive glance.

C and Java, or languages very close to them, can be
interpreted, rather than compiled.  <URL: http://
www.itworld.com/AppDev/710/swol-0818-regex/ > pre-
sents examples.
-- 

Cameron Laird <Cameron at Lairds.com>
Business:  http://www.Phaseit.net
Personal:  http://starbase.neosoft.com/~claird/home.html



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