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

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?

Binspam

[Thelasko]

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

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.