how fast is Python?

[dan]

Peter Hansen <peter at engcorp.com> wrote in message news:<3F44DFEB.60AB6492 at engcorp.com>...
...
> And in those very few cases, so far, I have consistently concluded
> I'm happy enough with the speed of Python given that the speed of
> *development* in Python is easily 5 to 10 times faster than the
> speed of development in C.  (And again, it's easy to find cases 
> outside of this range, on either side...)
> 
I pretty much agree.  The point of my question was not to knock Python
-- I'm simply curious how fast, _in_principle_, a language like Python
could be made to run.

I've looked at Psyco and Pyrex, I think both are interesting projects
but I doubt anything in the Py world has had nearly the kind of
man-hours devoted to optimization that Java, C++, and probably C# have
had.