i understand what you're saying, but my point is that even rewriting from python to python would show improvement. i've just coded the same project three times in different languages last year, and my design is getting better every time, and it has (almost) nothing to do with the language themselves. a benchmark is a much more reliable thing if you want to compare relative speed. or a "pet store" app. but not a "real world" project. altough that's still a really nice experience to read about.