Project Aims For 5x Increase In Python Performance

cocoanaut writes "A new project launched by Google's Python engineers could make the popular programming language five times faster. The project, which is called Unladen Swallow, seeks to replace the Python interpreter's virtual machine with a new just-in-time (JIT) compilation engine that is built on LLVM. The first milestone release, which was announced at PyCon, already offers a 15-25% performance increase over the standard CPython implementation. The source code is available from the Google Code web site."

Comments

Re:Unladen Swallow

[Rip Dick]

What if Oprah's ass got 5x's smaller?

How fast is five times faster really?

[LingNoi]

They say five times faster however it really depends on if they're talking about a European or African Python Interpreter.

Re:How fast is five times faster really?

[ArsonSmith]

Java spokes person: "5x faster? We already do that."

Java spokes person to other java people: "(whisper)Hehe, I told them we already do that. Hehe."

Re:How fast is five times faster really?

[meringuoid]

Joking aside, though, I find this target to be overambitious. Speeding up by a factor of three would be plausible; two would be OK, but I'd hope they'd keep working on it to get it up to three. Four strikes me as unlikely, and five is right out.

Re:How fast is five times faster really?

[AigariusDebian]

The difference is more like between:

Prepare the bread.
Put the sauce on the bread.
Put the cheese on the sauce on the bread.
Bake.

And:

define PizzaDoughFactory : AbstractDoughFactory{
        sub PizzaDoughFactory( PizzaDoughFactory cls, Integer thickness ){
                cls.AbstractDoughFactory( thickness )
        }

        sub Sauce ( PizzaDoughFactory cls, Topping top){
                cls.toppings = org.coolpace.JavaSmart.List( -1 )
                cls.toppings.appendToTop( top )
        }
}

define PizzaCreator : AbstractApplication {
        def main( Integer argc, String *argv ){
                new pizza = PizzaFactory()
                pizza.set_dough = PizzaDoughFactory()
                sauce = SauceFactory()
                cheese = CheeseFactory()
                pizza.dough.Sauce( sauce )
                pizza.dough.Sauce( cheese ) // historically all toppings are called sauces as well
                new ready_pizza = PizzaBakery( pizza )
        }
}

Re:Unladen Swallow

[davester666]

It would still be huge! :-)

slowed it down by half?

[Anonymous Coward]

0.5x slower is like 2x faster, right? Reciprocals?

Re:It's probably pining for the fiords.

[koiransuklaa]

So much for Parrot.

No no, he's not dead, he's... he's resting! Remarkable bird, the Norwegian Blue, ay?

Binspam

[Thelasko]

I get emails claiming to increase my python's performance all of the time, I just delete them.

Any Hope?

[Anonymous Coward]

Is there any hope that we will move away from these boutique programming languages and back to "real languages" that seriously consider size and performance?

I for one am completely sick and tired of 3Ghz multicore processor machines with gigabytes of RAM running like a 486. Languages like Python don;t help in the bloat arena and the scripting languages made out of frameworks on top of other scripting languages are just ludicrous!

Re:This is a very interesting project

[Tumbleweed]

I'm not quite sure what benefits this gives that Psyco doesn't already.

It doesn't get as stabby.

Re:This is a very interesting project

[Anonymous Coward]

- No Windows support (apparently a Linux-only VM in the plans)

They're trying to atone for their Chromium sins. You Windows lusers* will get a pre-alpha version ... eventually. The import statement won't work and every function call will print 'Stop! This VM isn't ready yet!' But you'll get something.

* And I say this without any animosity.

Re:It's probably pining for the fiords.

[jd]

The Parrot Sketch backfired not that long ago when fossils of a parrot (that probably was blue) were found in Norway. Not too far from the Fjords, as I recall. It is, however, quite dead.

Re:i submitted this story to slashdot before you

[maxume]

Here's your cookie:

/^\
\_/