Re:Why Python Is Slow: Looking Under the Hood
by jlebar on Tuesday November 18, 2014 @06:02PM
(#8626979)
> Almost all these points apply to javascript as well.
Sort of.
The article talks about why CPython, an implementation of the Python language, is slow. You're right that a naive implementation of Javascript would have many of the same problems, and indeed many of the first implementations of JS did have these problems. But due to heated competition, Mozilla, Google, Apple, and Microsoft have invested a huge amount of top-quality engineer-years into optimizing their implementations of JS.
Implementations of Python, in contrast -- and CPython in particular -- have not received the same sort of love.
I largely agree with the notion that the speed of modern JS engines serves as an existence proof that Python could be similarly fast.
Sort of.
The article talks about why CPython, an implementation of the Python language, is slow. You're right that a naive implementation of Javascript would have many of the same problems, and indeed many of the first implementations of JS did have these problems. But due to heated competition, Mozilla, Google, Apple, and Microsoft have invested a huge amount of top-quality engineer-years into optimizing their implementations of JS.
Implementations of Python, in contrast -- and CPython in particular -- have not received the same sort of love.
I largely agree with the notion that the speed of modern JS engines serves as an existence proof that Python could be similarly fast.