From: Mark Probert <probertm@...>
Date: 2005-08-12T06:19:51+09:00
Subject: Re: Performance Ruby


Hi ..

On Thu, 2005-08-11 at 21:16 +0900, Goel wrote:

> A friend is thinking to use it at his work too (standalone), but must know 
> some things about the performance before he is going to use it; hence my 
> (wrong) question.
> 
Perceived performance is a strange issue.  

My experience has been that Ruby is "fast enough" for all that I want it
to do, including some fairly complex data collection and processing.
Any issues that I have had aren't with its "performance".

Now, if pure speed is what your friend is after, then it is going to
depend on the problem domain and finding the right tool for the job.
Though the real answer is going to lie in some compromise between
developer performance and system performance.

For example, J (www.jsoftware.com) is wonderful, fast, extra-ordinary in
its domain.  Nothing can touch it, really.  And the learning curve is
almost perpendicular.  I have often wanted to us it in anger and could
not justify it.  On the other hand, I can and do use Forth.  Ruby won't
work there ;-) and I find it better than C.  

So, the short answer is get your friend to try out Ruby.  Post to clr if
there are problems and see for himself.  If ruby is too slow, try
Python.  Or OCaml. Or Nice.

Regards,

-- 
-mark.  (probertm at acm dot org)