Interestingly, I tried rewriting one of my C++ codes in Python one day, using numpy. It was mostly manipulation of largish (~1000 x 1000) matrices.

On the upside, it was 100 lines instead of several thousand.

On the downside, it was several hundred times slower.

I didn't bother trying to write serious simulation codes in Python after that.

Of course C++ will beat Python in speed if you invest enough time in it. And assembly will beat C/C++ if you invest even more time.

My point is that some people assume that if they would just sit and write something in C++ without putting enough time and effort and skill in it, it would be somehow magically faster and better than high-level language, just because it's C++. They are mistaken.

Python standard library is extremely fast. For example 'list.sort()' in Pytohn could run 3 times faster than C++ 'sort(vector<string>)'.

Here are few examples when simple Python code runs faster than the same code in C++: http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.python/browse_threa...

"For example 'list.sort()' in Pytohn could run 3 times faster than C++ 'sort(vector<string>)'"

Again comparing apples to oranges.

every tried NumPy? guess that's what you need for the matrices stuff ...

indeed. and lets remember that all of the built-ins in perl, php, python etc are written in c and compiled and optimized and debugged.

Python's pypy is written in RPython (it is python but with less features.) And it is already getting close to the main interpreter in C.

I can't wait for them to finally get the on the fly compiler working. Good times coming in the language competition.