V8 is able to compile PCREs directly into efficient machine code (in some cases at least), CPython is not. See: http://blog.chromium.org/2009/02/irregexp-googl

V8 is able to compile PCREs directly into efficient machine code (in some cases at least), CPython is not. See: http://blog.chromium.org/2009/02/irregexp-google-chromes-new-regexp.html http://blog.chromium.org/2009/02/irregexp-google-chromes-new...