$ time perl < /dev/null real 0m0.033s user 0m0.004s sys 0m0.000s $ time python < /dev/null real 0m0.017s user 0m0.004s sys 0m0.012s $ time per

$ time perl < /dev/null real 0m0.033s user 0m0.004s sys 0m0.000s $ time python < /dev/null real 0m0.017s user 0m0.004s sys 0m0.012s $ time perl < /dev/null real 0m0.002s user 0m0.004s sys 0m0.000s $ time python < /dev/null real 0m0.017s user 0m0.016s sys 0m0.000s $ time perl < /dev/null real 0m0.002s user 0m0.000s sys 0m0.004s $ time python < /dev/null real 0m0.017s user 0m0.008s sys 0m0.008s That's interesting. The first time perl is a lot slower, but further runs are a lot faster, while python starts medium and stays there. I tested this on more than one computer and results followed the same pattern.