5 ms·

So, python is slower than go, rust, zig, etc. OK we agree. Now does it matter? Not all codebases are the same. If I'm serving api requests, does it being 55ms

So, python is slower than go, rust, zig, etc. OK we agree. Now does it matter? Not all codebases are the same. If I'm serving api requests, does it being 55ms vs 15ms make a difference? 110ms vs 75ms? If you're writing analysis on a huge data set and an iteration takes 100ms vs 50ms? yeah that could be the difference between weeks vs days. Almost like someone should look at what they're doing before saying 'IshKebab said python is slow, so we should rewrite all our code'

ReflectedImage 4y ago
Well those sort of time differences would make a difference. But usually 90% of the response time for the api request is the time it took the SQL server to execute the relevant queries.
aidos 4y ago
For most cases it just doesn't matter. I make software that requires searching over large datasets (image recognition for construction drawings). It's a web app running python on the server and it feels instantaneous for users as they're searching. Most people aren't even doing that - they're just pushing and pulling data from a db. Building maintainable software is what really matters.
fazfq 4y ago
>If I'm serving api requests, does it being 55ms vs 15ms make a difference? Yes, it's the difference between being able to serve 66 r/s or 18 r/s.
killingtime74 4y ago
I've worked at places where both your comparisons absolutely matter. 55ms vs 15ms for a domain specific search engine breaks the budget of 20ms. 110 vs 75 broke the budget of a ML API. Not everyone has the luxury of not caring about speed
IshKebab 4y ago
The issue is that at the start of the project it doesn't matter, but in my experience projects always reach a point where it does matter. And at that point you have 500k lines or Python that you can't do anything with and you're looking enviously at your competitors who chose Go or Java or C# or Typescript or Kotlin or Swift or Nim or Dart or Rust or ... That's why I'd never start a new project in Python (among other reasons). It backs you into a poor performance corner.

ReflectedImage 4y ago

Well those sort of time differences would make a difference. But usually 90% of the response time for the api request is the time it took the SQL server to execute the relevant queries.

aidos 4y ago

For most cases it just doesn't matter. I make software that requires searching over large datasets (image recognition for construction drawings). It's a web app running python on the server and it feels instantaneous for users as they're searching. Most people aren't even doing that - they're just pushing and pulling data from a db. Building maintainable software is what really matters.

fazfq 4y ago

>If I'm serving api requests, does it being 55ms vs 15ms make a difference? Yes, it's the difference between being able to serve 66 r/s or 18 r/s.

killingtime74 4y ago

I've worked at places where both your comparisons absolutely matter. 55ms vs 15ms for a domain specific search engine breaks the budget of 20ms. 110 vs 75 broke the budget of a ML API. Not everyone has the luxury of not caring about speed

IshKebab 4y ago

The issue is that at the start of the project it doesn't matter, but in my experience projects always reach a point where it does matter. And at that point you have 500k lines or Python that you can't do anything with and you're looking enviously at your competitors who chose Go or Java or C# or Typescript or Kotlin or Swift or Nim or Dart or Rust or ... That's why I'd never start a new project in Python (among other reasons). It backs you into a poor performance corner.