From: ara.t.howard@...
Date: 2006-05-23T02:19:46+09:00
Subject: Re: Zed and Luis drop the bomb on Ruby's poor performance

On Tue, 23 May 2006, James Britt wrote:

> ara.t.howard@noaa.gov wrote:
>
>> ... you make good points - but let me just throw in my 2 cts:
>> 
>> virtual machines are stupid.  java is slow.  c++ is slow.  python is slow.
>> ruby is slow.  so what.  if you want fast you need c or fortan or 
>> assembler.
>
>
> Ara, do you not see value in a Ruby VM, or is just that speed is not, in
> itself, a justification for a VM?

i'm saying that gcc kills any vm both on speed and portability, including
windows, and has decades of hard work put in.

> (The speed-related advantage to a VM is that it does not require one to know 
> C, etc.,  or have a compiler for all target platforms.  Maybe not as fast as 
> tight compiled C, but also not as much trouble.  It's a trade.)

hmmm.  i think sun's experience with the java vm shows otherwise - remember
when you couldn't even 'stop' threads!  i think making a fast, protable, vm is
a lions job.  however, i'd be quite happy to be wrong, it just seems
un-likely.  consider how long has parrot been 'almost', for example...

-a
-- 
be kind whenever possible... it is always possible.
- h.h. the 14th dali lama