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Where are the fast dynamic languages?

martincmartin.com

1–10 of 21 posts

Re: Where are the fast dynamic languages?

#3
Does anyone here have a single example of a performance problem caused by using a 'dynamic' language rather than a 'static' language? The only performance problems I've ever encountered 'in the wild' have been down to things like database access, I/O, bad sorting algorithms, string concatenation, etc.

Re: Where are the fast dynamic languages?

#6
post #3

Does anyone here have a single example of a performance problem caused by using a 'dynamic' language rather than a 'static' language? The only performance problems I've ever encountered 'in the wild' have been down to things like database access, I/O, bad sorting algorithms, string concatenation, etc.

Yes. You are thinking of dynamic langauges merely on the function of being used on web apps. Embeded programming, programs in mobile applications, Javascript, Actionscript in flash.... you name it. Performance is important, especially on applications that are intesive (computing wise), and not i/o wise.

Eg. Games: A lot of games use something like Lua for scripting their UI, but for the hardcore game engine they use C or C++

Re: Where are the fast dynamic languages?

#7
post #3

Does anyone here have a single example of a performance problem caused by using a 'dynamic' language rather than a 'static' language? The only performance problems I've ever encountered 'in the wild' have been down to things like database access, I/O, bad sorting algorithms, string concatenation, etc.

Yes. A couple of years ago, I was implementing the Quadratic Sieve integer factorization algorithm in Maple (technically, I was implementing PP-SIQS). Taking a routine which used the Pollard rho algorithm to factor 12-16 digit values from MAPLE (a dynamically typed language) and implementing it in C -- using calls to exactly the same GMP primitive functions as Maple was using -- resulted in a tenfold speedup; this routine was used commonly enough that the overall routine was sped up by roughly a factor of two.

Re: Where are the fast dynamic languages?

#9
post #3

Does anyone here have a single example of a performance problem caused by using a 'dynamic' language rather than a 'static' language? The only performance problems I've ever encountered 'in the wild' have been down to things like database access, I/O, bad sorting algorithms, string concatenation, etc.

Dynamic languages like Perl, Python and Ruby all do. Many of their core features have been written in C to give them more performance.

Re: Where are the fast dynamic languages?

#10
post #8

Solving this problem is the main goal of the Cobra language: http://cobra-language.com/docs/why/ I'll be curious to see if it succeeds.

Thanks for the link, that is an interesting language. It seems like it's mostly a lot of C# features / programming style with python syntax and optional dynamic typing. Generally a good idea, though the code samples didn't feel right to me - lack of punctuation, perhaps? Maybe I've just gotten used to symbol-filled code.
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