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The Performance Overhead of Python C Extensions
- flkgas 5y agoWhat is the purpose of pythonspeed.com? Why is there an ad at the bottom of this article? Everyone knows the content presented here. Without C extensions, Python would not have taken off. It would have been an ABC (from CWI) knockoff, just another primitive dynamic language where you stick values into nested dictionaries at runtime and take them out again. The scientific ecosystem is the main thing that keeps Python alive (unfortunately, moving to a Lisp would be much nicer). Without C extensions Python would be utterly useless there.
- eesmith 5y ago> What is the purpose of pythonspeed.com? What is insufficient about the contents of the "About" page? It looks (and reads) like a technical essay meant as promotion for the author's training services and books. Which is also the point of the ad. > "Everyone knows the content presented here" At some point you did not know this, right? Some people want to figure this out for themselves, as you likely did. Others prefer knowledge transfer, eg, through courses like what the author provides. > Without C extensions The author isn't saying to not use extensions. The last part is "If you do need to write an extension". > Without C extensions, Python would not have taken off Without C extensions, Python would not have existed. The original need was a better language for working with Amoeba, and "amoeba" was an optional built-in module in the first public release.